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X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

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Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#11
I'm sorry, but calling this fraud is a stretch. Twitter served ads next to extremist content and doesn't deny it. Their defense is that it's rare because most people don't follow that combination of accounts* and don't doom scroll.

If I were an advertiser using a service that said I could prevent my ads from appearing next to extremist content, I'd want the chance to be 0%, not rare. Rare at Twitter scale is still a lot.

- * In light of the Bud Light boycott, I bet there are a decent number of users who follow brands (like Bud Light) and hateful content (anti-trans propaganda). Note Twitters use of the weasel word "average".

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#12

Unfortunately, Musk filed the suit in a state which has a worse anti-SLAPP law, which makes it harder for him to be forced to pay to defend free speech. Although Media Matters might have a good shot at effecting a change-of-venue by arguing that it should be brought in CA (where eX-Twitter is headquartered) or DC (where Media Matters is located). Scrolling to causes of action: > Interference With Contract Lolnope. Ho…

You clearly didn't read the filing.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m...

They followed only Nazis and major advertisers, then hid this fact in their reporting and presented it as a normal, natural user interaction.

If it goes through, a Texas jury will rule against MM. What they did is unethical and dishonest. You might find this acceptable, but only because you dislike Elon Musk. Any objective party can see this for what it is.

What's to stop me from doing the same to Reddit, FB, TikTok, etc??

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#13

It sounds like X did serve ads next to pro-nazi tweets, it just took them 10-15 refreshes to get it to happen. https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/1726772923841552784...

Yes, to accounts ONLY following Nazis and major advertisers and nobody else.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m...

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#14
post #13

It sounds like X did serve ads next to pro-nazi tweets, it just took them 10-15 refreshes to get it to happen. https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/1726772923841552784...

Yes, to accounts ONLY following Nazis and major advertisers and nobody else. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m...

As an advertiser, I would not care - did you put my brand next to a post promoting nazis or not?

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#15
post #12

Unfortunately, Musk filed the suit in a state which has a worse anti-SLAPP law, which makes it harder for him to be forced to pay to defend free speech. Although Media Matters might have a good shot at effecting a change-of-venue by arguing that it should be brought in CA (where eX-Twitter is headquartered) or DC (where Media Matters is located). Scrolling to causes of action: > Interference With Contract Lolnope. Ho…

You clearly didn't read the filing. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m... They followed only Nazis and major advertisers, then hid this fact in their reporting and presented it as a normal, natural user interaction. If it goes through, a Texas jury will rule against MM. What they did is unethical and dishonest. You might find this acceptable, but only because you dislike Elon Musk. Any objec…

> You clearly didn't read the filing.

I in fact did read the filing. That's why I started with the actual causes of actions. And that's why I can also point out the cases where the lawsuit fails to actually plead necessary elements of their own claims, for example, never actually pleading that Media Matters induced a contract breach.

> They followed only Nazis and major advertisers, then hid this fact in their reporting and presented it as a normal, natural user interaction.

That doesn't matter. Media Matters said that Twitter would place ads next to extremist content, and Twitter admits--in this lawsuit no less--that it did! But then goes on to argue that it's actually Media Matters who placed those ads, not Twitter (¶25 if you don't believe me) which is kooks.

> If it goes through, a Texas jury will rule against MM.

>90% odds this suit gets transferred to CA. Why is Twitter filing a lawsuit against another company in a state where neither is incorporated, where none of the actions took place, and where Twitter's ToS doesn't say that lawsuits should be filed? (Well, because it's harder for MM to avail itself of anti-SLAPP in the 5th Circuit that's why). But even once it gets there, or should it not even reach there, it won't survive a motion to dismiss. It does nowhere near the amount of legwork it actually needs to do to substantiate the causes of action it alleges.

> You might find this acceptable, but only because you dislike Elon Musk.

No. I understand First Amendment jurisprudence and how hard it is for anyone to actually successfully win a lawsuit over disparagement. If the page count in your complaint is not in the triple digits, you probably didn't do sufficient work to actually clear those hurdles.

> What's to stop me from doing the same to Reddit, FB, TikTok, etc??

Absolutely nothing. You can thank the First Amendment for that.

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#16
post #13

It sounds like X did serve ads next to pro-nazi tweets, it just took them 10-15 refreshes to get it to happen. https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/1726772923841552784...

Yes, to accounts ONLY following Nazis and major advertisers and nobody else. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m...

[deleted]

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#17
post #12

Unfortunately, Musk filed the suit in a state which has a worse anti-SLAPP law, which makes it harder for him to be forced to pay to defend free speech. Although Media Matters might have a good shot at effecting a change-of-venue by arguing that it should be brought in CA (where eX-Twitter is headquartered) or DC (where Media Matters is located). Scrolling to causes of action: > Interference With Contract Lolnope. Ho…

You clearly didn't read the filing. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m... They followed only Nazis and major advertisers, then hid this fact in their reporting and presented it as a normal, natural user interaction. If it goes through, a Texas jury will rule against MM. What they did is unethical and dishonest. You might find this acceptable, but only because you dislike Elon Musk. Any objec…

> What's to stop me from doing the same to Reddit, FB, TikTok, etc??

By all means, do it. Please.

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, to accounts ONLY following Nazis and major advertisers and nobody else. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24172809-x-v-media-m...

As an advertiser, I would not care - did you put my brand next to a post promoting nazis or not?

As an advertiser, I'm not sure that I care about "brand damage" for fake accounts that only follow nazis, with fake traffic generated; just don't charge me for it.

Re: X sues Media Matters to silence moderation criticism

#20

I'm sorry, but calling this fraud is a stretch. Twitter served ads next to extremist content and doesn't deny it. Their defense is that it's rare because most people don't follow that combination of accounts* and don't doom scroll. If I were an advertiser using a service that said I could prevent my ads from appearing next to extremist content, I'd want the chance to be 0%, not rare. Rare at Twitter scale is still a…

No, their defense is that Media Matters was passing this off to advertisers as representative of what normal Twitter users were seeing.

I don't know much about US law specifically, but in most countries if a third party (usually but not always a competitor) goes to one party in an agreement and lies to them in order to induce them to cut business from a second, then that's libel/slander and can yield damages against the untruthful party.

In this case Media Matters has clearly been untruthful. What they did is barely different from just outright Photoshopping the images together, or sticking a misleading caption on a cropped photo. The legal question is therefore only to what extent US law / first amendment protects such unethical behavior, not whether they did it at all.

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