MRC Helps Musk Attack Group For Exposing Hate On Twitter

The Media Research Center made sure to ignore even more bad news about Elon Musk and Twitter. For instance:

• Twitter reinstated the account of right-wing influencer Dom Lucre after he was banned for posting a video of a toddler being tortured.
• Twitter also reinstated the account of Kanye West, also know as Ye,  months after it was banned for postin an image of a swastika inside a Star of David.

Musk knew he had to change the narrative, so it was right-wing red-meat time. And the MRC’s Luis Cornelio eagerly lapped it up in an Aug.1 post:

An anti-free speech group had a meltdown after Elon Musk took legal action against the group’s research targeting X, formerly known as Twitter.

Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the infamous Center for Countering Digital Hate, and its Democrat allies have hysterically responded to a legal threat from Musk, the owner of X. Ahmed lamented that Musk is pushing back against the CCDH’s efforts to destroy the platform after Musk pledged to stand up for free speech. Disgraced Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) chimed in, whining that mass censorship is no longer reining on Twitter.

In a fiery letter, Musk’s attorneys issued an ultimatum to the CCDH, slamming the far-left organization’s research against the X platform. Musk argued that the CCDH is falsely accusing X of allowing so-called hate speech on its platform. The letter, as reported by The New York Times, called the research “false, misleading or both.” Similarly, in a blog post dated July 31, X blasted the CCDH for “actively working to”: “assert false and misleading claims encouraging advertisers to pause investment,” “prevent public dialogue” and “prevent free expression” by targeting individuals it doesn’t agree with.

Once again, Cornelio is dishonestly framing content moderation to address lies and misinformation as “censorship” while refusing to explain why lies and misinformation must be allowed to spread unchecked (if they further right-wing narratives, at least). Also, at no point does Cornelio cite Twitter or Musk providing any evidence that proves false anything CCDH has reported. Instead, he complained that Ahmed is responding to Musk by pointing out that he’s effectively demanding that CCDH be censored:

Ahmed wrote an opinion article for MSNBC, whining that Musk is bullying him. “[Musk] is trying to silence the independent researchers at CCDH who are shining a light on the situation,” Ahmed further bellyached, referring to his group’s dubious research that hate speech is on the rise on X. “Musk and his legal team have engaged in an aggressive campaign to intimidate, bully and silence CCDH.”

In a brazen bout of hypocrisy, Ahmed further accused Musk of censoring CCDH, the exact sort of punishment CCDH seeks when accusing those it disagrees with of having spread so-called hate speech. Specifically, Ahmed claimed, “X’s legal threat is a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research, perhaps in a desperate hope that it can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild the company’s relationship with advertisers.”

Cornelio offered no proof that any bit of CCDH research about Twitter is “dubious,” nor did he respond to anything else Ahmed said. He then admitted that his employer’s attacks on CCDH are personal: “Just what has CCDH done in the past? In 2022, CCDH classified the Media Research Center, among others, as one of the ‘Toxic Ten’ of alleged climate ‘misinformation.'” As we documented at the time, the MRC never rebutted anything in the CCDH report, instead merely demonstrating just how thin-skinned it is about criticism, smearing CCDH as “digital brownshirts.”

Catherine Salgado touted a Republican attack on CCDH in an Aug. 7 post:

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is requesting information from an anti-free speech nonprofit over potential censorship collusion with the federal government.

X (formerly known as Twitter) accused the UK- and U.S.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of hurting Twitter’s advertising through false claims of rising hate speech in a lawsuit last week. Now Jordan is asking for information on “the interactions between the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and the federal government in particular, as well as between CCDH and social media companies.”

Dated August 3, the letter called out leftist CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed and his group for “appear[ing] to have played a role”  in President Joe Biden’s “censorship regime by advising the government and social media companies on so-called ‘misinformation’ and other types of content— sometimes with direct or indirect support or approval from the federal government.”

The letter argued that anti-free speech efforts in coordination with the government, whether “directly or indirectly,” is “a grave threat to the First Amendment.” Jordan specifically zeroed in on CCDH’s COVID-19-era report on “The Disinformation Dozen,” which led to censorship of users like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that CCDH labeled as prominent “anti-vaxxers.”

Salgado, like Cornelio, failed to explain why lies and misinformation — especially about an important health issue like COVID — must never be countered. Nor did she explain that  Kennedy is very much an anti-vaxxer, and he has indisputably spread lies and misinformation about vaccines. Salgado also showed no curiosity about why Jordan is working to weaponize government against a critic at the apparent request of a wealthy man like Musk.

And like Cornelio, Salgado whined that “CCDH included Media Research Center in its November 2021 ‘Toxic Ten’ report of the top spreaders of supposed ‘climate change denial'” without mentioning that her employer didn’t dispute anything CCDH said about it. She also made sure to note that her boss, Brent Bozell, “previously called CCDH ‘digital brownshirts.'” Gotta make sure to smear a critic while cheering how the government is targeting it.