Billionaire Elon Musk claims to be an absolutist when it comes to free speech.
When it suits him, that is.
A watchdog group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate studied X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, after Musk took it over in October 2022. The group reported that racist, antisemitic and other extremist speech had risen since Musk acquired the platform.
This did not sit well with Musk. X sued the CCDH, charging it violated the site's terms of service by gathering data for its reporting. The suit also claimed the CCDH had cost X millions in lost advertising revenue.
A federal judge didn't see it that way.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer threw out the lawsuit, saying it was a blatant attempt to silence the CCDH.
"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," Breyer wrote in his 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."
The judge ruled the CCDH's use of data from the platform was part of a legitimate news gathering purpose.
And he alluded to another possible motive for the lawsuit -- that Musk was using his fortune to intimidate critics who ccould be hurt financially by litigation.
"X Corp.'s motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp. -- and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism," the Breyer wrote.
X plans to appeal, according to a post on the platform. No surprise there.
Apparently Musk is indeed all about free speech -- especially the part that says "money talks."