San Francisco: A US judge on Monday dismissed X Corp’s lawsuit against a nonprofit group that has criticised a rise in hate speech on the social media platform once known as Twitter since Elon Musk took it over.

US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco granted the dismissal request by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, saying it appeared that Musk targeted the nonprofit because he didn’t like what it stood for.

“It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp is far more concerned about CCDH’s speech than it is its data collection methods,” Breyer wrote in a 52-page decision.

X had sued the nonprofit last July, saying it breached its user contract by improperly scraping and cherry-picking data to create false and misleading reports that Musk let X become a haven for hate speech, extremism and other misinformation.

According to the complaint, the nonprofit’s “scare campaign” was intended to drive away advertisers, and caused tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2024