The Center for Countering Digital Hate recently published new research which indicates that X has neglected to take down posts with hateful speech, despite being aware that the content contravenes the company's current hateful conduct guidelines. Coming near on a month since Elon Musk has sued the nonprofit, the CCDH's CEO believes that the action was an attempt to silence any opposition that may have arisen from the group's studies, describing the legal action as "effectively saying that research is tortious interference."
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reported Wednesday that hate speech still persists on the messaging service known as X despite the company being notified that such content violates their hateful conduct guidelines. The CCDH's findings come after about one month since X sued the nonprofit for allegations of collecting Twitter data through unscrupulous methods. The most recent research collected 300 posts from 100 accounts which contained hateful content such as posts designed to "stop race mixing" or that stated Black people are intrinsically violent. Around 140 of the 300 posts contained antisemitic content, including images of Nazi swastikas, messages supporting Holocaust denial and posts that pushed conspiracy theories regarding Jews.
The CCDH notified X through the company's user-reporting tools on Aug. 30 and 31 and followed up a week later to find that the platform had only taken down 41 posts, leaving 259 posts containing hateful content, some of which referred to Adolf Hitler as "A hero who will help secure a future for white children!" In addition, 90 of the 100 accounts responsible for sending the posts were still active. Major companies like Apple and Disney ran online ads alongside the hateful content.
CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed commented that the process to report is "straightforward" and that "it takes out any excuses of this being about capacity to detect problematic content." He added, “Leaving up content like this is a choice, and that invites the question: Are you proud of the choices you're making?”
X did not respond to a request for comment but from their post, the company denied the CCDH's assertions and stated that they either remove content that violates their policies or label and restrict the reach of certain posts.
Ahmed told CNBC that he believes X's lawsuit was intended to place a financial burden on the CCDH, which he estimates will cost the nonprofit “half a million just to defend it.”
Last week, Elon Musk claimed he would file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League, which he stated “was trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic.” The ADL CEO responded that this was merely a “threat of a frivolous lawsuit” and “flat out dangerous and deeply irresponsible.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted on X saying the company “opposes antisemitism in all its forms” and pointed to a corporate blog post which detailed how X is addressing antisemitic content on their platform.
According to the CCDH, hate speech is still rampant on the messaging service formerly known as X despite the company being alerted about the posts in violation of their hateful conduct guidelines. The CCDH collected 300 posts from 100 accounts which contained various hateful content, including 140 posts with antisemitic content such as images of Nazi swastikas, messages supporting Holocaust denial, and notes promoting conspiracy theories related to Jews. Major companies like Apple and Disney ran online ads next to these posts, which prompted CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed to ask if X is “proud of the choices they're making.” X did not respond to the request for comment but denied the CCDH's claims and state that they either remove content that violates their policies or label and restrict the reach of certain posts. Last week, Elon Musk threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League for “falsely accusing him of being anti-Semitic”, which X CEO Linda Yaccarino spoke out against when she posted X's policy of “opposing antisemitism in all its forms.”
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