Elon Musk and other Republican leaders are using lawsuits to silence groups that study disinformation
A Bloomberg reporter pointed out that some Republican lawmakers and Elon Musk are suing groups that study and warn about misinformation because the misinformation they study is consistent with conservative opinions.
Musk and Friends Are Smothering the Internet's Truth Seekers - Bloomberg
Bloomberg technology columnist Parmy Olson says groups that study the flow of misinformation are being sued by people who they believe profit from the spread of '
Olson said one of the reasons these groups are being sued is because some of the misinformation they track aligns with conservative positions.
For example, with the COVID-19 pandemic, Olson says, 'Many Republican leaders and influencers, including Donald Trump himself, questioned many of the social distancing measures and mask mandates and created vaccine skepticism, but when disinformation research groups called on social media to remove posts containing misinformation, Republicans viewed it as a partisan attack.'
Olson claims that Republicans are suing disinformation research groups to suppress them because their activities undermine the activities of the Republican Party.
One example of a lawsuit is the one filed in 2023 by Stephen Miller, an advisor to President Trump, against the Stanford University Internet Observatory. Miller alleged that 'the organization and other research groups conspired with the federal government to conduct mass surveillance and censorship targeting the political speech of millions of Americans,' and the Internet Observatory was reportedly 'pressured into shutting down' the following year.
Other prominent groups, including Graphika and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue , have reportedly faced lawsuits and congressional summonses.
Musk is suing the Digital Hate Countermeasures Center for 'making a series of problematic and unfounded allegations intended to harm X's (formerly Twitter) digital advertising business.' In addition, several researchers have reportedly abandoned or changed their research due to concerns about Musk's lawsuit.
More than 100 researchers abandon research on X (formerly Twitter) due to fears of Elon Musk's indictment - GIGAZINE
by Wired Photostream
'Calling research into disinformation 'censorship' further upsets the balance of social media, which is already poorly equipped to curb disinformation,' Olson said. 'Without the research community, and no visibility into where disinformation is being shared, how can we hold online platforms accountable?'
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