- Elon Musk's X Corp. has filed a lawsuit against a nonprofit that tracks hate speech on social media.
- The nonprofit's CEO, Imran Ahmed, said the lawsuit was "straight out of the authoritarian playbook."
The nonprofit that Elon Musk's X Corp. sued on Monday isn't holding back in its criticism of the billionaire.
Imran Ahmed, the founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in a statement published Tuesday that Musk's legal challenge was "straight out of the authoritarian playbook."
X, formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit on Monday. The lawsuit alleged that it unlawfully "scraped" the platform's server and "cherry-picked" data in reports that said the site was overrun by hateful and harmful content.
The nonprofit issued a statement on the day of the filing to denounce what it said was Musk's attempts to "intimidate and silence the organization." But Ahmed's comments on Tuesday ramped up the criticism of Musk's management of his social-media platform.
Ahmed said in his statement Tuesday that Musk was attempting "to 'shoot the messenger'" rather than "deal with the toxic environment he's created."
"Elon Musk didn't like the reflection he saw in the mirror, and so he sued the mirror," Ahmed wrote on X.
When asked for comment on Ahmed's remarks, X responded with an automated reply. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
The two executives have exchanged harsh words before. In July, Musk called Ahmed a "rat" and said his nonprofit was "truly evil" in a string of Twitter replies. In response, Ahmed called Musk "petulant."
Musk's displeasure with the organization likely stems from the nonprofit's reports that found high levels of harmful content on the platform.
Last December, the Center for Countering Digital Hate published a report that said racist and antisemitic content on Twitter surged in the week after Musk purchased the platform. The nonprofit has published several other reports related to Musk's platform this year, including on topics like the increase of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric on Twitter and the levels of hate speech among Twitter Blue subscribers.
The lawsuit alleged that the Center for Countering Digital Hate "embarked on a scare campaign" to dissuade advertisers from working with Musk's company.
Since Musk purchased Twitter last October, his platform has struggled to retain advertising revenue. Several prominent brands fled last November, and Musk acknowledged in a tweet that the exodus resulted in a "massive drop in revenue" for the brand.
Advertisers left partly because of rising concerns about hate speech and misinformation circulating on Twitter under Musk's direction. But Musk said his desire to establish the platform as a free-speech haven was a key reason he purchased Twitter.
Musk told the BBC in April that almost all the advertisers that left had either come back or planned to return. But leaked internal documents showed that Twitter's ad revenue dropped 59% from April 1 to the first week of May compared to the same period a year prior.
Musk addressed advertising again in July. He said the company was still suffering a negative cash flow because of debt and lower ad revenue.