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Update:
- A California federal judge permanently dismissed a lawsuit X Corp. filed against hate speech watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and the nonprofit Stichting European Climate Foundation.
- The judge ruled the complaint was “unabashedly and vociferously” only about punishing CCDH and the climate foundation for exercising their right to free speech.
- X Corp. argued the CCDH, with the help of the nonprofit, violated the terms of its social media platform by allegedly unlawfully scraping information for its reports, costing the company advertising revenue and harming its reputation.
- The judge determined the lawsuit was only about X being at odds with the data collection.
X Corp. lawsuit overview:
- Who: X Corp., formerly called Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against hate speech watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate.
- Why: CCDH allegedly illegally scraped data in order to “cherry-pick” posts to falsely show the platform is rife with harmful content.
- Where: The X Corp. data scraping lawsuit was filed in California federal court.
- What are my options: Norton LifeLock carries many options when it comes to data security.
(Aug. 9, 2023)
X Corp., formerly called Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against a hate speech watchdog, claiming the nonprofit organization unlawfully gained access to protected data so it could “cherry-pick” posts to falsely show the platform is rife with harmful content, Law360 reports.
Center for Countering Digital Hate, a registered user of X, allegedly scraped data from the platform in violation of the terms of agreement with X Corp. and violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by scraping and accessing the company’s data, according to the lawsuit.
X Corp., which is owned by Elon Musk, says the CCDH organizations are “activist organizations masquerading as research agencies.”
The X Corp. lawsuit asserts claims for breach of contract, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations, and inducing breach of contract.
Lawsuit: X Corp. data scraping is illegal and violates user agreements
CCDH allegedly engaged in X Corp. data scraping in violation of the express terms of its agreement with the platform. CCDH also allegedly convinced a third party to share login credentials to a secured database that CCDH accessed without authorization.
“Those data sets were and are accessible only via secure login credentials that defendants (except for the third party who is included as a doe defendant and improperly shared its login credentials with CCDH) were never authorized to have,” the lawsuit says.
CCDH subsequently selected data it obtained from this improper access and quoted it out of context in public reports and news articles to give the impression that X Corp. is overwhelmed with harmful content and convince companies to stop advertising on the platform, the lawsuit says.
X Corp. claims that CCDH published incorrect reports and articles “in efforts to silence users it disagrees with on topics of public debate, and now to cause serious financial harm to X Corp.”
CCDH founder and CEO Imran Ahmed reportedly described the X Corp. lawsuit as being “straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” and shows that Elon Musk is trying to “silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions.”
X Corp. was recently hit with a class action alleging the company failed to pay severance to Twitter employees who were fired shortly after Musk took over the company.
What do you think about the X Corp. data scraping lawsuit? Join the discussion in the comments!
X Corp. is represented by J. Jonathan Hawk of White & Chase LLP.
The data scraping lawsuit is X Corp. v. Center for Countering Digital Hate Inc., et al., Case No. 3:23-cv-03836, in the U.S. District Court for the District of California.
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