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

    • Dima@lemmy.one
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      11 months ago

      I love that this is a legal letter and yet contains the very direct phrase:

      That threat is bogus and you know it.

    • crapwittyname@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Mrs_deWinter@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        Not to mention how it starts with

        “We write in response to the ridiculous letter you sent our clients on behalf of X Corp.”

        They are not taking any BS. I love it.

      • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • Silverseren@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      I really think all the artists still on there are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.

      And that obviously has already started with the direct messaging restrictions that messes with contacting commissioners.

      • klyde@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        If they leave Twitter, where are they going to go? Artists need to promote themselves. They sure aren’t coming here to promote themselves. Twitter has always been where people go to keep up with their favorite artists whether it be art, music, comedy, etc. If they leave then they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Twitter is still massively popular even if you don’t agree. Same goes for Reddit.

        People who have made a living promoting themselves on Twitter aren’t going to leave it just because Musk is a dumbass. Most artists as you mention typical have business emails in their profiles. Until Musk does something to fuck with their income, they’re staying.

        It’s the same shit when people on Reddit say they’re abandoning COD this year because the devs pissed them off only for the game to have the highest sales ever. You, me, Lemmy users, and Reddit haters are just a fraction of the people who use those sites.

        • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          “Twitter has always where people go to keep up with their favorite artists…”

          Somehow fandoms managed to exist before 2007.

        • mycatiskai@lemmy.one
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          11 months ago

          They (celebrities) would have the biggest pull to get people moved onto one of these new services.

          I know nothing short of the names as I don’t need that kind of app or service but if one of these new places like blue sky or mastadon had an easy way to get signed up for the masses then someone like Taylor Swift saying she was signing up and to join her there as she drops twixxter then millions of people would sign up in days.

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Mastodon is a good pick to keep in the back pocket but it doesn’t have mass adoption yet, and all the others are art-dedicated websites. The advantage of Twitter was that it made it easy for their art to be shared widely but linked back to their account so that regular people just browsing would get to know their work and maybe follow them through it. Anyone regularly browsing those other websites are already art enthusiasts so that’s not so effective to expand their audience.

            • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It won’t have adoption until it gets adopted. And the only way for that to happen is for people to adopt it of course. What probably needs to happen is for someone to write a simple app to either post to both at the same time or something that someone could run themselves or pay an inexpensive nominal fee for someone else to run for them to mirror their posts.