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
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:
- hate speech is running rampant on your platform.
- you’re doing nothing to stop it.
- here’s our evidence.
- where’s your e idence?
- why are you spending time and money on fighting us instead of on fighting the literal white supremacist death threats on your platform?
- telling us we’ve not sampled enough tweets while you’re in the process of making impossible the mass sampling of tweets is…a bit rich.
- we’re not intimidated by your threats
- your threats are also bullshit
- we’re not gonna stop
It’s a textbook example of “no u” in grown up language. Bravo.
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.
Legal snark is by far the most expensive brand of humor
I trust that you’ve read this one?
The best part of it:
If your clients do file suit, please be advised that CCDH intends to seek immediate discovery regarding hate speech and misinformation on the Twitter platform; Twitter’s policies and practices relating to these issues; and Twitter’s advertising revenue. In that event, a court will determine for itself the truth of the statements in our client’s report in accordance with the time-tested rules of civil procedure and evidence.
Now that is a nuclear statement in a lawyers letter…
