Oh Elmo

I Wonder how many times a journalist has eagerly referred to him as a "free speech champion" or similar.

A JUDGE ON Monday granted a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from X Corp. — the company formerly known as Twitter — against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an anti-extremism watchdog. The group had drawn the ire of the company’s owner, Elon Musk, by sharing research that revealed how racist and hateful content had exploded on the platform since his takeover in 2022. Musk’s suit, filed in July 2023, claimed that the CCDH was responsible for an advertiser exodus from the site.

“Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose,” Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in the 52-page decision. “Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.”