The billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, is moving to sue a non-profit anti-hate group after it said the organisation was “actively working to prevent free expression” on the platform.

As a giant flashing ‘X’ sign was ordered removed from the San-Francisco headquarters of Twitter – now known as X – the company has been accused of bullying anti-hate campaigners.

Threatening to sue, X recently issued nonprofit research company the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) with a letter accusing the organisation of making a series of “troubling and baseless” claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically.

The social media platform, which was recently ordered to remove a flashing ‘X’ sign from the San-Francisco headquarters of Twitter, then announced that it had filed a lawsuit in a California court against the CCDH with claims it is was working to prevent free expression.

According to the New York Times, the letter cited CCDH research into hate speech on X, with one key finding that Twitter had taken no action against 99 percent of the 100 Twitter Blue accounts the organisation reported for “tweeting hate”, with X deeming it “false, misleading or both” and claiming it used “improper methodology”.

With Musk at the helm, X has been widely accused of not doing enough to fight hate speech and disinformation on its platform, although Musk recently issued a tweet – now known as an X – claiming that hate speech was down by a third.

When Elon Musk concluded his acquisition of Twitter for around $44 billion last year, he described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and went on to unban the accounts of polarising figures the likes of former president Donald Trump and proud neo-Nazi and founder of neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer Andrew Anglin.

British politicians have backed CCDH and its work on highlighting hate speech on social media.

Damian Collins, a British MP on the UK board of CCDH, recently pointed out that Elon Musk's commitment to free speech didn't seem to apply when his firm was criticised.

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