UPDATE: Aug. 1 On Monday, after this story was published, Twitter now rebranded as X Corp. followed through on its legal threat, suing the Center for Countering Digital Hate in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Among other things, the suit alleges that CCDH intentionally sought to deprive Twitter of advertising revenue through allegedly false claims regarding the volume of hate speech on the social media platform. Twitter also alleged that CCDH used company data from the social media analytics firm Brandwatch without authorization.

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said the lawsuit was straight out of the authoritarian playbook.

PREVIOUSLY:

An anti-hate speech group is fighting back after Twitter threatened legal action over a study that found the company failed to remove hateful tweets from paid accounts.

The legal threat from Twitter accused the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit organization, of publishing inflammatory, outrageous, and false or misleading assertions about the social media platform specifically, in the form of the groups research into Twitters failure to take down hate speech since Elon Musk took over. (Musk recently rebranded Twitter as X Corp.)

In June, CCDH researchers used Twitters reporting mechanism to flag 100 tweets from paid Twitter Blue subscribers that CCDH saw as violating Twitters policies, including racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, antisemitic or conspiracy content. Four days later, according to the group , Twitter had only taken down one post out of 100, and all of the offending accounts remained active.

Twitter claimed in its letter that it had reason to believe CCDHs work had been funded by Twitters competitors and that it appeared calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically. The companys attorney, Alex Spiro, provided no evidence for the claims.

Spiro wrote that Twitter was investigating whether CCDHs work was actionable under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act , which concerns trademark infringement, false advertisement and related matters.

Since March , reporters questions to Twitter have been answered with a single poop emoji. On Monday, however, the companys press account told HuffPost, Well get back to you soon, but did not answer any questions by press time.

Twitters letter was dated July 20, according to a copy published by CCDH. The organization responded Monday morning in a letter of its own calling Twitters message ridiculous and said its threat of legal action was bogus and you know it.

The letter noted that CCDH has published work critical of Twitters competitors as well, and that simply put, there is no bona fide legal grievance here, but rather a transparent attempt to silence honest criticism.

CCDH will not be bullied by your clients, wrote Roberta Kaplan, an attorney representing the group. The letter demanded that Twitter preserve documents, text messages and other records concerning disinformation and hate speech on Twitters platform, Twitters content moderation policies and its enforcement of those policies, and Twitters advertising business and revenues.

Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, said in a statement that Musk was targeting the organization because we reveal the truth about the spread of hate and disinformation on Twitter under his ownership, and its impacting his bottom line.

Elon Musks actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research, in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers, Ahmed said. Advertisers are fleeing his platform for one clear reason: Elon Musk has supported the proliferation of hate and racism on it, and he doesnt care to stop it.

Twitters advertising has tanked since Musk purchased the site in October.

CCDH also shared a note of support from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who praised the groups important work exposing the hate and disinformation proliferating on Twitter and criticized Musk for attempting to silence his critics.

Media outlets, including HuffPost , The New York Times , The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian frequently cite CCDHs research on Twitter and other websites, including Google, TikTok and Substack.

The groups work on Twitter has made waves since Musks takeover of the social media site and his mass layoffs of content moderation staff, along with his decision to allow previously-banned accounts back on the site.

Earlier this month two days before his attorneys letter to CCDH Musk referred to a report from the group and asked on Twitter, Anyone know who is supporting this rat? and Who is funding this organization? They spread disinformation and push censorship, while claiming the opposite. Truly evil.