Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) has just been denied of its request to penalize the accounts tracking hate speeches on the platform.
San Francisco District Court Judge Charles Breyer, who is holding X's case against the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, said on Thursday that he "can't think of anything basically more antithetical to the First Amendment than this process of silencing people."
Last year, Musk filed a "thermonuclear lawsuit" against CCDH for publishing its report that antisemitic posts were appearing next to advertisements.
The report, along with Musk's attitude toward the issue, has caused major brands to stop running ads on X, resulting in the platform's revenues further dropping.
The judge noted that if Musk and X filed a defamation case, they would have more chances.
CCDH's publication has prompted other digital watch groups and news outlets to point out the rise of hate speech on X, causing the platform to take more hits in its potential revenues.
NPR first reported the court rulings.
X Claims CCDH Obtain Nonpublic Data for Hate Speech Evidence
X, rather than push for defamation, accused CCDH of violating the platform's terms of service by using a toll called Brandwatch to supposedly gain access to "nonpublic data."
The CCDH defended that the third-party toll accessing non-public posts "is implausible" as it is only natural to use search functions to look for certain posts among thousands, if not millions, of posts being uploaded every day.
X Continues to Suffer From Ad Revenue Loss
X's loss in its case against the CCDH is another possible hit on its revenue.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino has been inviting brands that went with the exodus at a relatively small success, causing the platform's value to further tank, according to recent estimates.
It does not help that pro-Nazi, Islamophobic, and Antisemitic posts continue to spread across the platform, either by organic accounts or bots spreading posts all over X.
Related Article : Elon Musk's X is Filled with Bot Accounts and There's Not Much We Can Do
