Attorneys for X Corp. and a research organization that studies online hate speech clashed in court on Thursday as the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, sued the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate for documenting the increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased by Elon Musk. X alleges that the center's researchers violated the site's terms of service by improperly compiling public tweets and that their reports on the rise of hate speech led to millions in lost advertising revenue. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer expressed skepticism during the oral arguments in San Francisco, questioning X's attorney on how reporting on publicly available information could violate the First Amendment.

In its lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California, X claims that the center's researchers collected a vast amount of data for their analysis using third-party software to “scrape” the site, which violated the terms of service. The company is seeking damages to compensate for lost advertising and staff time investigating the center's methods. However, the researchers' attorney argued that they only used automated search tools to analyze publicly available posts and that the lawsuit is an attempt to silence critics.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit with offices in the U.S. and UK, regularly publishes reports on hate speech and harmful behavior on social media platforms like X. The organization has been critical of Musk's leadership, highlighting an increase in anti-LGBTQ hate speech and climate misinformation since his purchase of the platform. This rise in hateful material has also been noted by other groups, leading to big advertisers like IBM and NBCUniversal pulling their ads from X.

The hearing on Thursday was called after the center filed a motion to dismiss X's lawsuit, with Judge Breyer stating that he will consider the motion. Musk, who has proclaimed himself a free speech absolutist, has faced criticism for welcoming back white supremacists and election deniers to the platform. Despite his stance on free speech, Musk has been sensitive to critical speech directed at him or his companies in the past, suspending the accounts of journalists who covered his takeover of Twitter.