X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has threatened to sue a group of independent researchers whose research documented an increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased
Twitter is threatening legal action against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that researches hate speech and content moderation on social media platforms.
The letter from Twitter's lawyers alleges that CCDH's research publications are intended to 'harm Twitter's business by driving advertisers away from the platform with incendiary claims.'
This is a pretty bold move from Twitter, especially considering that CCDH is a well-respected organization that has been doing this kind of research for years. And it's especially ironic coming from Elon Musk, who has said that he's a 'free speech absolutist.'
But Musk has also shown that he's sensitive to criticism, so it's not surprising that he's taking this kind of action against CCDH
Please, please do that. I can’t wait to see the discovery portion of the trial
Yes, let's see the data
I was just going to say, wouldn't they have to disprove the findings to win?
Even better, the emails from Musk about this. Those would be a bombshell.
Elon used to love saying he was a Free Speech Absolutist, but once again that only extends to speech he likes.
The man will say absolutely anything.
Except things that are actually funny.
He likes any speech as long as it makes him money.
It's our fault honestly. We kept hearing "free speech" but he's been saying "fee speech" this whole time!
The response from CCDH is savage -
https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Letter-to-A.-Spiro-from-R.-Kaplan-re-CCDH.pdf
I love it. The gist is:
It's a textbook example of "no u" in grown up language. Bravo.
Not to mention how it starts with
They are not taking any BS. I love it.
Legal snark is by far the most expensive brand of humor, but when it's deployed on your behalf it's so goddamn satisfying.
During a hearing in my divorce, I answered a question from the judge, the other lawyer says "we can't have hearsay in this discussion", my lawyer responds "well this will be a short hearing then because everything in your client's motion is hearsay".
That little snap cost me about $15 but it was worth it.
I trust that you've read this one?
Bad link
It's direct to a PDF (maybe shows in 'downloaded documents' for Android, or download menu in Connect?) but for anyone on a device that doesn't like PDFs, the link was The Onion's amicus filed with the US Supreme Court (summarised in newspapers)
The best part of it:
Now that is a nuclear statement in a lawyers letter...
I love that this is a legal letter and yet contains the very direct phrase:
Savage indeed !!
It's a shame that people are still using that platform.
I really think all the artists still on there are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.
And that obviously has already started with the direct messaging restrictions that messes with contacting commissioners.
If they leave Twitter, where are they going to go? Artists need to promote themselves. They sure aren't coming here to promote themselves. Twitter has always been where people go to keep up with their favorite artists whether it be art, music, comedy, etc. If they leave then they're shooting themselves in the foot. Twitter is still massively popular even if you don't agree. Same goes for Reddit.
People who have made a living promoting themselves on Twitter aren't going to leave it just because Musk is a dumbass. Most artists as you mention typical have business emails in their profiles. Until Musk does something to fuck with their income, they're staying.
It's the same shit when people on Reddit say they're abandoning COD this year because the devs pissed them off only for the game to have the highest sales ever. You, me, Lemmy users, and Reddit haters are just a fraction of the people who use those sites.
Mastodon? Pixiv? Deviantart? Artstation?
Mastodon is a good pick to keep in the back pocket but it doesn't have mass adoption yet, and all the others are art-dedicated websites. The advantage of Twitter was that it made it easy for their art to be shared widely but linked back to their account so that regular people just browsing would get to know their work and maybe follow them through it. Anyone regularly browsing those other websites are already art enthusiasts so that's not so effective to expand their audience.
It won't have adoption until it gets adopted. And the only way for that to happen is for people to adopt it of course. What probably needs to happen is for someone to write a simple app to either post to both at the same time or something that someone could run themselves or pay an inexpensive nominal fee for someone else to run for them to mirror their posts.
That was made harder because Twitter now charges for their API. Some people are trying to do both manually, but they can't entirely move away since their livelihood depends on maintaining their audience.
We did these sort of things before apis. They will be possible when all apis are gone still.
They (celebrities) would have the biggest pull to get people moved onto one of these new services.
I know nothing short of the names as I don't need that kind of app or service but if one of these new places like blue sky or mastadon had an easy way to get signed up for the masses then someone like Taylor Swift saying she was signing up and to join her there as she drops twixxter then millions of people would sign up in days.
The issue is that not every artist is a celebrity.
Sure Taylor Swift can move a lot of people, but some upcoming niche artist can barely hold onto the little audience they built even by staying there.
"Twitter has always where people go to keep up with their favorite artists..."
Somehow fandoms managed to exist before 2007.
Wait what restrictions? Can you no longer DM an artist?
From what I have seen/heard from people still on there, there's a new setting that only allows you to receive DMs from "verified users" (i.e. Twitter Blue subscribers). You are automatically opted into this and have to opt out to receive DMs from others.
On the upside, it’s mostly morons and assholes. The reporting that’s got Musk snorting rails of battery pack acid and pursing his oh-so-ruby lips basically addresses the stark increase in both the assholes and the vastly more numerous waterheads they manipulate and grift. I’ve looked at #X from others’ accounts and it’s hilarious. I’d feel guilty if I were to sign up. Undignified. Embarrassing. Icky.
Why? It's mostly positive experience for me. I don't quite see why someone else not liking Twitter means I shouldn't be there either.
Someone else not liking it, sure. But if it's doing nothing about hateful speech and death threats then by continuing to use it you appear to be fine with that.
I guess in a way I'm fine with that. I tolerate it. As long as it stays out of my feed atleast. I don't see it being being something that Twitter is somehow especially riddled with compared to other social media companies or even Lemmy for that matter.
If I were to boycott every company that does something I don't agree with I'd pretty much be living alone in the forest eating berries and mushrooms.
No one is saying boycott all. They're just saying boycott some. And that's a bridge too far for you.
Evidence based documentation is going to be hard to win against, unless the plan is just drag them through legal proceedings until they can't afford it. The american dream.
Wouldn't surprise me if in this case enough people would donate. Enough people are sick of Musk at this point.
Yes, free speech and evidence based documentation will be fine, Musk won't be able to afford prolongued legal proceedings. American dream indeed.
For a company that claims to be desperate to cut costs they sure do have a lot of money for frivolous lawsuits...
Does Stinky believe that by suing these researchers, the rise in hate speech didn't happen?!
No, but he can scare off anyone else from making him look bad.
It's expensive and scary to get hit with a lawsuit like this.
He doesn't need any help with that anyway.
Just donated to the CCDH, they definitely don't have the resources to fight Twitter alone.
Given that Twitter trust and safety was almost completely gutted upon his acquisition, I think it's very improbable that type of content was moderated effectively.
No, but he can pretend it didn't
Does he smell bad too? It wouldn't surprise me considering he's unpleasant in so many other ways, I just hadn't heard that one.
It’s a reference to “musk”
Ohhhhhh!
The man-child billionaire says he is not for censorship, while using the judicial system to censor.
We don’t need to call it X or even the platform formerly known as Twitter. It’s just Twitter.
I mean their site is twitter[.]com
They haven't changed the url yet? Wonder when they'll do it..... Probably gonna break a lot of stuff everywhere.
It's Brand X. It's an appropriate name.
Everything is better than Brand X. Every ad has told me so.
The foodfight paralels are uncanny, musk himself looks like a character from that movie.
This is a great example of a SLAPP suit
Sue everyone you don't like. That's the thin-skinned, narcissistic billionaire way.
Doesn't matter if they're right or wrong, pile up the costs and they'll all cave in.
Free speech absolutist.
Free speech abolitionist
Fee speech absolutist
Wasn’t he all about free speech and even against censorship?
“ I think if you go down the censorship route, it’s only a matter of time before censorship is turned upon you.” -musk
free speech until his interests aren't endangered
Free speech is still there.
Yes, for him whose views align with his!
Source he censored other views?
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xqnv/elon-musk-censors-twitter-in-turkey
If you don’t trust Vice, there’s a tweet in that article from an official Twitter account saying they will censor tweets.
He literally defended himself bowing to government censorship a few months ago. Keep up.
I'm loving these colourful thread bars on the left hand side.
I'm only replying to see what color is next.
If they go to court, wouldn't the court make them prove that the claim was false or defamation? And if CCDH can prove that it's not false or defamation then now it's legal record that hate speech has increased since the takeover? This all seems ok with me.
That's not how the American court system works.
A company like Twitter can bleed the CCDH dry and just walk away with a frivolous lawsuit and a minor (insignificant) penalty.
And the way that works is not by accident.
In a defamation lawsuit, it would not be X that had to prove it was a lie. It would be CCDH that had to prove it had evidence for their claims (notice that it does not need to be true, only has to be reasonable for CCDH to believe it is true based on evidence they had).
Musk should sue himself then. Seems like he has done the most to drive away advertisers.
Free speech, but until something goes wrong. Then it's totalitarian government
“Free speech for me, not for thee”. God, I’m THIS close to deleting my account there and just migrating back to Tumblr and bluesky. There are just too many users I love that haven’t moved anywhere else yet.
Try Mastodon. Remember to follow hashtags.
mastodon seems a valid alternative but I find it empty in comparison. I will try to follow hastags, maybe it is the right way to have good content
I’m not really comfortable with how Mastodon works. Bluesky really seems like a very comfy, cool environment and I really like the feeds function. And I mean, Tumblr was always perfect for me anyway.
Learn to be okay missing out on that content
Convince some of them to move out, too. Or at least start using alternatives, like Mastodon (or any of the dozen services that interact with it, like Akkoma and Soapbox). The number of servers is mind boggling.
He is the forefront of apartheid theory and sees anyone not espousing it a threat to his existence.
Stop giving Musk free publicity. Don't post or upvote Musk spam.
Edit Not posting Musk spam on Lemmy does not mean there's no accountability. What Musk wants is for idiots like you to keep upvoting his daily bullshit and doing his marketing for free.
So let them operate under the radar and avoid any and all accountability? I think that might be exactly what Musk wants.
Some apps have a word filter you could use. What i learned from this post is that i will make a donation to the researchers when i can afford it
Isn’t that what you’re doing right now? If no one can post even an opinion against it, you’re clearly the hypocrite to say not them but it’s entirely ok for you to do it
Driving ur attention to here:
X is a free public service funded largely by advertisers.
X aware that the CCDH gained access to X’s data without Brandwatch’s authorization,
How did they get the data? By visiting the public website. Unless browsing Ten is illegal that's a baseless claim.
I mean, you can't really view anything on Brand X anymore without a login.
EDIT: Looks like they brought back non-logged-in feed viewing, for now at least. They seem to go back and forth on that pretty frequently.
"How dare you use well researched facts to state obvious facts that I don't like to hear about!" - karen musk
I wonder how he'll Musk things up this time?
Boycott Musk
Mush (sic) is a true POS. I am incredibly glad i changed my mind on a pre-order down payment on the Tesla 3.
It's front end is ugly AF.
Mush balls showed how retarded he is.
What a snowflake
Here is Twitter's statement about it: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2023/a-new-era-of-transparency-for-twitter1
First three paragraphs: “everyone should be able to express themselves”
Rest of the post: “we don’t like what these researchers are saying, so we’ll do what’s possible to make sure those people aren’t able to express themselves”
Anyone have this centre's definition of hate? Its a musk twitter agenda post so it probably allergic to context
So Twitter is Prince now, got it.