A nonprofit organization that researches links between social media, hate and extremism has been threatened with a lawsuit by X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The “free speech absolutist” strikes again to silence speach he personally doesn’t like.
It’s so mortifying that I bought into the Mush hype for a few years. It’s one of those “embarrassing things you did as a kid” levels of self cringe.
When he was just running Tesla and SpaceX, and generally keeping his mouth shut he seemed okay. It was around Hyperloop that he started to show his true self.
He’s such a hero! Imagine where we would be without him.
“By ‘free speech,’ I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.”
– Musk Tweeted that after getting criticized for censoring Twitter in Turkey and India. So apparently if North Korea allowed Twitter, he’d happily censor away since that would be the law.
The good ol “Everything I say has super smart and deep meaning that needs to be explained everytime I make seemingly absurd, contradictory and short-sighted comments.” What a deep, mysterious and nuanced fellow.
Free speech absolutist
In order to win a libel suit it is my understanding they must prove the claims to be false. So if this goes to court they could end up proving in court that it is a matter of fact provable that Twitter has become more toxic since Musk took over. And then they would win. That would be brilliant.
That would require the researchers to be able to afford a lengthy trial, which I’m guessing they can’t. Rich people do this shit to scare people out of going to trial.
Good thing there are plenty of good lawyers that would cream their pants to take up a high profile slam dunk case like this pro bono or on contingency.
The ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center have some, I’m sure they would love to participate.
The thing that most stands out to me about Musk and his ilk isn’t their hate - it’s their cowardice.
If they would actually own their hate, I’d have some bare modicum of respect for them. At least then it would be a principled stance. A loathsome one to be sure, but at least principled.
But they’re too cowardly and weak-willed for that. They’re all telling it like it is and going their own way and fuck your feelings right up until someone calls them out on it, then they instantly turn into weepy schoolgirls moaning about how picked on and persecuted they are.
It’s because, truthfully, they have no other stance except those that either make them money or headlines.
They’ll have whatever fuck principles and stances that will give them either more money or more acknowledgement for their egos.
They published those lawyers’ letters, both from Muskiboi and the answer. Pretty entertaining read, actually.
Could you link those? I’d like to read them!
Looking over their concerns, I’m not sure that they have a leg to stand on. The claim they’re making is that they’ve measured an increase in hate-related tweets (I’ll take them at their word on this) and then they associate this with Musk taking over.
They present no evidence for this later claim and do not, as far as I can see, make any attempt to compare against increases in hate among other social media platforms.
Grooming, for example, is one topic they covered. But this is a topic that Republicans have been pushing increasingly as election season spins up. Musk didn’t cause that, and that kind of nonsense can be found on Facebook and reddit as well.
I’m inclined to sympathize with an underdog nonprofit, but in this case I just can’t see why they expected not to get pushback on such poorly grounded claims
Threaten to sue? Maybe
Remember that in the legal process, discovery uncovers all truths and communications. Depositions are the one sand trap for people like Trump and Musk. If you lie under deposition, you get prison time. That’s why they rarely if ever agree to it.
I’ll bet a lot of money no suit is filed. This is all posturing for crazies to assume X sued them and it must not be true. Threatening to sue is the new spin doctoring.
This is clearly a SLAPP lawsuit. Since civil penalties and fines don’t matter to Musk it seems the only way to enforce good behavior is with criminal ones.
In the letter, attorney [for Twitter] Alex Spiro questioned the expertise of the researchers and accused the center of trying to harm X’s reputation. The letter also suggested, without evidence, that the center received funds from some of X’s competitors
Is this enough for a countersuit?
If you mean a countersuit for libel, then no. Anything said as part of a court proceeding is immune from libel lawsuits.
Awwwww.
Makes sense but that is such any easy way to get things into the press with legal protections…
True, but remember it’s not libel if everyone assumes you’re lying.
