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Musk’s Lawsuit Is About Destroying Free Speech Ari Paul ([link removed])


MMFA: As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content

Media Matters for America (11/16/23 ([link removed]) ): "We recently found ads for Apple ([link removed]) , Bravo ([link removed]) , Oracle ([link removed]) , Xfinity ([link removed]) and ([link removed]) IBM ([link removed]) next to posts that tout Hitler and his Nazi Party on X."

He wasn’t bluffing.

After threatening to sue liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America (CNBC, 11/18/23 ([link removed]) ), Twitter’s principal owner Elon Musk did just that, arguing in papers filed in a Texas court that the group "manipulated" data in an effort to "destroy" the social media platform, causing major advertisers to pull back (BBC, 11/20/23 ([link removed]) ).

The world's richest human was responding to an MMFA report (11/16/23 ([link removed]) ) about Twitter—which Musk has rebranded as X since purchasing the once publicly traded company—and its promotion of far-right, antisemitic content. It said that while “Musk continues his descent into white nationalist and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” the social media network has been “placing ads for major brands like Apple, Bravo (NBCUniversal), IBM, Oracle and Xfinity (Comcast) next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.”
BBC: Elon Musk's X sues Media Matters over antisemitism analysis

Elon Musk (BBC, 11/20/23 ([link removed]) ) promised a "thermonuclear" lawsuit against anyone "who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company."

The report came just as the world stood in shock of Musk’s latest outburst of antisemitism: Just before the lawsuit was filed, he “publicly endorsed ([link removed]) an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists: that Jewish communities push ‘hatred against whites’” (CNN, 11/17/23 ([link removed]) ). This received widespread condemnation, including from the White House (Reuters, 11/17/23 ([link removed]) ).

A few weeks earlier, the South African–born billionaire had endorsed the "white genocide" conspiracy theory (Mediaite, 10/27/23 ([link removed]) ), a central myth ([link removed]) of white supremacy: “They absolutely want your extinction,” he replied to a Twitter user who claimed that the melting down of a statue of Robert E. Lee was proof that "many seek our extinction." The reported exodus of advertisers from Twitter in such a brief time span has been enormous (AP, 11/18/23 ([link removed]) ).

The AP (11/20/23 ([link removed]) ) reported that Twitter’s lawsuit claims MMFA “manipulated algorithms on the platform to create images of advertisers’ paid posts next to racist, incendiary content,” and that the lawsuit states that the instances of hateful content near such advertisements were “‘manufactured, inorganic and extraordinarily rare.’” (By "manufactured," Musk means that MMFA got its results by following far-right accounts on Twitter as well as the accounts of Twitter's major advertisers.)


** Antisemitic vitriol
------------------------------------------------------------
NYT: Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find

New York Times (12/2/22 ([link removed]) ): Researchers said "they had never seen such a sharp increase in hate speech, problematic content and formerly banned accounts in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform."

It isn’t a secret that antisemitic vitriol has increased on the site under Musk’s management (New York Times, 12/2/22 ([link removed]) ; Washington Post, 3/20/23 ([link removed]) ; Vice, 5/18/23 ([link removed]) ). What's different now is that the MMFA report and the anger toward his last outburst happened as he is losing the business he desperately needs, as the brand has been rapidly tanking since he spent $44 billion to acquire it (Fortune, 5/30/23 ([link removed]) ).

The case was filed in Texas, although Twitter is based in California and MMFA is in Washington, DC. Musk’s choice of venue has everything to do with his right-wing politics and nothing to do with compliance with the law. Fast Company (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ) wrote:

The case has been assigned to District Judge Mark Pittman, a Donald Trump appointee whose previous rulings include blocking President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and declaring a Texas law banning people ages 18 to 20 from carrying handguns in public was unconstitutional.

Also, by filing in the state, the case can be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has backed several conservative figures who claim they’ve been censored in the past.

MMFA is nevertheless confident that it will win the case; in a statement published by CNBC (11/18/23 ([link removed]) ) before Musk's suit was filed, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone declared:

Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate. Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win.

Defamation cases are difficult for the plaintiff to win, especially in the case of someone like Musk, a public figure, who must prove that even false statements against them were intentional lies or made with "reckless disregard for the truth ([link removed]) ." Legal experts cited by CNN (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ) characterized the lawsuit as "weak" and "bogus."

That doesn’t mean that legal fees, hours of working on the case and sleepless nights won’t impact MMFA’s work. In a case like this, a Goliath like Musk doesn’t need to win in court to hamper a David like MMFA, which reports ([link removed]) an annual revenue of about $19 million and total assets of $26 million. That’s pennies in comparison to Musk, whose net worth is valued at nearly $200 billion (CBS News, 10/31/23 ([link removed]) ). Mounting legal bills for oligarchs like Musk are as significant as a McDonald’s hamburger.


** Rallying call for right
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NY Post: Elon Musk yet again pulls back the veil to reveal the machinery of the liberal censorship complex

In the topsy-turvy world of the New York Post (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ), billionaires who sue critics of hate speech are champions of free speech.

The suit is also a rallying call for the right, as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly (New York Post, 11/20/23 ([link removed]) ) and the Federalist (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ) are cheerleading the legal action. Greg Gutfeld of Fox News (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ) welcomed the lawsuit, calling MMFA a “hard-left smear machine.” The New York Post editorial board (11/21/23 ([link removed]) ), using Freudian projection, said the suit was a reaction to the liberal determination to “bring down Elon Musk for championing free speech.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who fought to overturn the 2020 presidential election (Austin American-Statesman, 5/25/22
([link removed]) ), said he was opening an investigation into MMFA (The Hill, 11/21/23 ([link removed]) ).

Musk—who is hostile to organized labor (NPR, 3/3/22 ([link removed]) ; Forbes, 12/5/22 ([link removed]) ), who has promoted anti-trans hate on Twitter (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/13/22 ([link removed]) ; Business Insider, 1/2/23 ([link removed]) ; The Nation, 6/23/23 ([link removed]) ) and who backed Republicans in last year’s midterm elections (Politico, 11/7/22 ([link removed]) )—has become a darling of the right. A billionaire boss with socially conservative views, he has amped up the
mythology that social media networks are somehow rigged against the right (Vox, 12/9/22 ([link removed]) ; New York, 12/10/22 ([link removed]) ; Daily Beast, 4/6/23 ([link removed]) ; CNN, 6/6/23 ([link removed]) ), and that his takeover of Twitter will lead to more balance.

What has resulted since his takeover is an unrelenting campaign of censorship. El País (5/24/23 ([link removed]) ) reported that since his takeover, the platform “has approved 83% of censorship requests by authoritarian governments,” and has shown a particular interest in censoring critics of India’s right-wing regime (Intercept, 3/28/23 ([link removed]) ). It has silenced left-wing voices at the behest of "far-right internet trolls" (Intercept, 11/29/22 ([link removed]) ). And in order to silence criticism of Israel--an impulse that is not incompatible ([link removed]) with antisemitism--Musk has threatened to suspend users who use the word "decolonization" or the phrase
“from the river to the sea,” a reference to the original borders of historic Palestine before the proposed partition and Israel’s eventual founding (Mother Jones, 11/18/23 ([link removed]) ). Journalists on the social media beat have been banned (CNN, 12/17/22 ([link removed]) ; Daily Beast, 4/19/23 ([link removed]) ).


** Sinister forces
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Media Matters: Elon Musk praises antisemitic replacement theory that motivated a mass shooting as “the actual truth”

Media Matters: Musk has reinstated ([link removed]) known white nationalists and antisemites on the platform" and "amplified conspiracy theories that were used to push antisemitism."

MMFA was founded in 2004—in the midst of the "War on Terror" fervor of the George W. Bush years—by former right-wing journalist turned liberal consultant David Brock, who launched it to keep an eye on the rising influence of conservative news and talk shows (New York Times, 5/3/04 ([link removed]) ). Its ongoing criticism of both Musk and corporate media like Fox News (Rolling Stone, 7/28/19 ([link removed]) ) makes it the perfect target for the right. In the paranoid fantasyland of US conservatism, MMFA sits alongside George Soros, Black Lives Matter and Antifa as sinister forces who are out to undermine traditional social hierarchies.

And one can understand why Musk has a personal interest in going after MMFA, as the group (10/5/23 ([link removed]) , 11/13/23 ([link removed]) , 11/15/23 ([link removed]) ) has focused on his politics and his administration of the website since he took it over.

I have written for several years about the right’s attempt to use the courts and legislatures to destroy press freedom to suppress reporting and opinions the rich and powerful don’t like (FAIR.org, 3/26/21 ([link removed]) , 5/25/22 ([link removed]) , 11/2/22 ([link removed]) , 3/1/23 ([link removed]) ). The lawsuit sends a warning to reporters and advocates that can be easily interpreted: Musk isn’t just interested in taking over one social media network, but also drowning out the voices of anyone who challenges him. The point of this lawsuit is to intimidate anyone who speaks out against antisemitism, white supremacy and other forms of bigotry.

For those of us who care deeply about free speech and a free press, let’s hope this lawsuit is swiftly tossed out.
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