Will Elon Sue? NBC News Finds, Yet Again, That ExTwitter Has ‘Verified’ Neo-Nazi Accounts, With Ads Appearing Next To Their Content

Content Moderation

from the free-speech-absolutism-sure-seems-different dept

Elon Musk does not seem to like it much when reports point out that ExTwitter appears to have a neo-Nazi issue. Of course, he could respond to these reports by noting that, as a “free speech absolutist,” that includes those who support Nazism, as distasteful as that is, but he stands by that horrific speech because of his belief in free speech.

That would suggest some sort of principles, even if you might consider them confused and distorted principles, at the very least.

However, the last few times organizations have pointed out the propensity of neo-Nazi content on ExTwitter, Elon Musk has done the opposite of committing to “free speech absolutism.” Instead, he’s sued those who reported on it. In August of last year, he sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). That lawsuit was recently tossed out of court as an obvious SLAPP suit.

And then, in November, he sued Media Matters for its report on advertising from big companies appearing next to content posted by neo-Nazis. Actually, he sued them twice. Once in Texas and then again in Ireland. He also urged state Attorneys General to go after Media Matters as well, which both Texas’ Ken Paxton and Missouri’s Andrew Bailey have done. Just last week, the court blocked Paxton’s investigation as clearly an attempt to suppress free speech.

In other words, while Musk could have taken a “free speech absolutist” response to these claims, he has instead chosen to take a “I believe in free speech for neo-Nazis, but not for anyone who criticizes me” approach to these things.

And, look, if you’re looking to create chilling effects and silence other critics, that could work. In the Paxton ruling that came out last week, it was revealed that Media Matters has chosen not to publish other stories it was working on about ExTwitter out of fear of further legal action. That is the very definition of abusing state power to suppress speech.

However, such tactics can also backfire in a big way. After Musk sued Media Matters, we noted that it caused a lot more people to begin investigating neo-Nazis on ExTwitter.

And now, the latest is NBC News, which has published a report highlighting that it has found 150 verified accounts on the site pushing pro-Nazi content.

NBC News found that at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules. The paid accounts posting the content all consistently posted antisemitic or pro-Nazi material. Examples included praise of Nazi soldiers, sharing of Nazi symbols and denials of the Holocaust. 

The pro-Nazi content is not confined to the fringes of the platform. During one seven-day period in March, seven of the most widely shared pro-Nazi posts on X accrued 4.5 million views in total. One post with 1.9 million views promoted a false and long-debunked conspiracy theory that 6 million Jews did not die in the Holocaust. More than 5,300 verified and unverified accounts reshared that post, and other popular posts were reshared hundreds of times apiece. 

To be clear, Musk has every right to set his policies however he wants. And that can include not just allowing neo-Nazis to post bigoted, false, hateful propaganda on his site, but even to have their accounts “verified” (which, of course, no longer means “verified” in any real sense).

Also, given the number of users on ExTwitter (large, though shrinking), it’s entirely reasonable to argue that the company doesn’t realize it has all these neo-Nazi accounts, or that they are verified accounts. Many people wouldn’t believe that, but it’s also a possible explanation if the company doesn’t want to just flat out say “we’re the Nazi bar, all are welcome.”

Of course, as with the Media Matters’s report, NBC also found ads running on many of these accounts, including ads from some big name companies:

NBC News found ads running on 74 of the 150 premium accounts, either on their profile pages or in the replies below their posts. The advertisers included SiriusXM, The Hollywood Reporter and Cisco subsidiary Splunk. SiriusXM declined to comment. Penske Media, the owner of The Hollywood Reporter, declined to comment. Splunk did not respond to requests for comment sent by email. 

Ads from other companies appeared among the search results for a Holocaust-denial hashtag. 

Again, it’s entirely possible to argue that this is due to mistakes made in the vetting process. But, if that’s how Musk was going to argue this, he could have said that in response to Media Matters’ report a few months ago. Instead, he sued. Twice. And convinced states to open bullshit investigations.

So far, at least, ExTwitter hasn’t threatened to sue NBC News. The company whined that NBC only provided it with 13 examples, rather than the full 150. But, of course, it’s not NBC News’ job to help ExTwitter find the neo-Nazis on its platform:

Meanwhile, Elon has responded to an account claiming that the NBC story was debunked (it has not been) by effectively confirming the story and suggesting that 150 accounts is a pretty small number.

And, this is a perfectly reasonable response. But it would sound a lot more honest if Musk hadn’t sued two other organizations for reporting similar things. Also, at no point did NBC suggest that it had found all of the neo-Nazis posting on the site. Indeed, the article admits that it only did a relatively simple search and reported what it found.

Again, there are all sorts of ways that Musk and ExTwitter could respond to this, but so far, it’s choosing some of the silliest ways (though, at least Musk isn’t talking about lawsuits… yet).

Filed Under: advertising, content moderation, elon musk, free speech, neo nazis
Companies: nbc news, twitter, x