Imran Ahmed instructed personnel at the Center for Countering Digital to persist with examining X despite a lawsuit being brought forth by the organisation. "I have never shied away from a battle," he told CNBC. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and head of the Judiciary Committee, dispatched a missive this week to the CCDH and Ahmed as part of a wider "censorship probe."
Imran Ahmed will not be cowed by Elon Musk's intimidation. He has also urged researchers at his nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), to stand their ground. This comes after Twitter (previously known as X) sued CCDH in federal court earlier this week for publishing research that was unfavorable to Musk. As the study revealed, hate speech had skyrocketed since Musk bought the company last year, and that X was not responding to paying subscribers who posted racist, homophobic, and conspiratorial content. Ahmed was determined to continue the CCDH's investigations, and so in a meeting with his staff, declared that they should "double down" on probing X.
Ahmed studied at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and established CCDH in 2018 in the wake of the assassination of Labour Party Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, by a white supremacist. While Twitter has sued the CCDH, alleging misuse of the social media analysis tool Brandwatch and scraping of data from Twitter without permission, Ahmed has made it clear that he is unafraid of the legal battle.
Ahmed's technique of exposing hateful and misleading content has been met with resistance from X, Meta, and TikTok. Still, the CCDH's March report, which highlighted a 119% surge in tweets with grooming conspiracy theories since Musk's takeover of Twitter, was based on an analysis of 1.7 million tweets from the beginning of 2022 to February 2023. The data was collected using a scraping tool and Twitter's search function.
X is now attempting to take Ahmed and the CCDH to court and is demanding unspecified monetary damages, a jury trial, and a ban on CCDH and its associates from accessing data from X. Ahmed has yet to comment on the specifics of the case, though he noted that X has yet to physically present them with the lawsuit.
Neither of those companies X or Brandwatch/Cision, who were previously contacted in relation to the matter, took the step to sue the nonprofit or accuse it of any wrongdoing. X had previously sent a letter to CCDH thru a law firm alleging false and misleading claims linked to the Lanham Act. Commenting on the actions of Musk, Ahmed described them as those of "a man who is desperately fishing around for ways to blame someone else." When asked about the lawsuit and when it plans to serve CCDH with it, X did not respond, but rather issued a statement to CNBC, reiterating prior claims that the nonprofit was spreading false information to obstruct public discussion. Musk had previously referred to Ahmed as a "rat" and the nonprofit as "truly evil". Brandwatch and its parent company Cision did not reply to requests for comment.Ahmed has defended the CCDH against suggestions it is a "censorship organization," highlighting the organization has "never taken money from tech companies, social media companies, or foreign governments." He also slammed claims from Musk alleging the group is backed by possible competitors or foreign governments as "false." Ahmed also provided evidence of the CCDH's work with the U.S. and U.K. governments on Internet harms and its support of the U.K.'s Online Safety Bill which is meant to improve social media users' safety.He then scrutinized Musk's "self-proclaimed title as champion of free speech" and suggested that Musk is unaware of "how free speech truly works" nor understands the "marketplace of ideas." Ahmed compared Musk's behavior to that of a "child who simply cannot take responsibility for the fact that he pooped in his own pants and it wasn't someone else that did it for him."In response to a letter from three Democrat members of Congress who claimed the X owner has adopted a "hostile stance" toward independent researchers and accused him of not taking "responsibility for the fact" that his actions have raised questions about his business practices, Musks has received support from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. Jordan sent a letter to Ahmed and the CCDH to inquire about the organization's "interactions" with the Biden administration and social media companies.As a result of these events, the CCDH has seen an influx of donations and messages of support from a variety of organizations including Amnesty International, the Anti-Defamation League, Friends of the Earth, and Planned Parenthood. Moreover, groups like GLAAD, the Molly Rose Foundation, the Free Press, Check My Ads and Coalition for Independent Tech Research, have all voiced their support for the CCDH. Ahmed concluded by stressing that these organizations are standing up for their right to comment on private companies who manage "significant parts of" the information ecosystem.
Ahmed defended the CCDH against the suggestion it is a "censorship organization," emphasizing that the group "doesn't take money from tech companies, social media companies, or governments" and only receives funding from philanthropic trusts and the public. He additionally provided evidence of CCDH's involvement in the U.S. and U.K. governments on Internet harms and their backing of the U.K.'s Online Safety Bill. Ahmed then proceeded to criticize Musk's self-proclaimed free speech champion title, suggesting he has yet to learn "how free speech works" and pointing out his inability to take responsibility for his actions. In response to a letter from three Democratic members of Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan offered support for Musk by sending a letter to Ahmed and the CCDH inquiring about the organization's "interactions" with the Biden administration and social media companies.The CCDH has since seen an outpour of donations and messages of support from various organizations and the public. These entities are also standing up for their right to comment on private companies that manage "significant parts of" the information ecosystem.
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