by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Mercola:
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Between lawsuits and voluntary document releases such as the Twitter Files, it’s become apparent that most censorship is being directed by the U.S. government, in blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution
- The U.S. government based some of its censorship decisions on information from an obscure U.K.-based group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
- June 1, 2023, the CCDH published a report about Twitter Blue, claiming the platform failed to censor 99% of hate posted by Twitter Blue-subscribed accounts. Twitter/X Corp. is now suing the CCDH, arguing the group is “actively working to prevent free expression” and spreading “troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically”
- The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government wants to know who funds the CCDH, and how and why this obscure foreign group has been allowed to impede the free speech rights of Americans. To that end, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, opened an investigation into the CCDH August 3, 2023
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may also be relying on the CCDH’s malign fabrications to identify “domestic threat actors,” meaning domestic terrorists. And, while a 2021 DHS report condemns “naming and shaming” domestic “threat actors,” it’s clear that this advice was not heeded, as all CCDH targets have been retaliated against in egregious, and many cases illegal, ways
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, censorship has kicked into high gear, and between lawsuits and voluntary document releases such as the Twitter Files, released by Elon Musk after he took over the company, it’s become apparent that most of this censorship is being directed by the U.S. government itself, in blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution.
In short, government departments and agencies have been outsourcing the censorship to private tech companies through private-public partnerships, but the decisions about who and what to be censored came straight from the top.
In 2021, it also became apparent that the U.S. government was basing some of these decisions on information from an obscure U.K.-based group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). It’s “Disinformation Dozen” report,1 published March 24, 2021, is without question one of the most widely cited “justifications” for censorship. The problem is that this report was itself an example of gross misinformation.
The CCDH claimed 12 individuals were responsible for 73% of vaccine misinformation on social media, including Facebook, yet an investigation by Facebook revealed the so-called “disinformation dozen” were responsible for just 0.05% of all views of vaccine-related content on the platform.2
Yet, even after Facebook set the record straight, the federal government continued to cite the CCDH report as the reason for why they wanted the people listed in it censored by Big Tech.
As just one example, Sen. Elizabeth Warren demanded that Amazon ban my book, “The Truth About COVID,” based on the CCDH’s false statements about me, months after Facebook debunked its claims.
CCDH Campaign to Take Down Twitter
Most recently, the CCDH has turned its attention to Elon Musk’s Twitter, now renamed X Corp. June 1, 2023, the CCDH published a report3,4 about Twitter Blue, claiming the platform failed to censor 99% of hate posted by Twitter Blue-subscribed accounts.
However, its research strategies have not improved over the years. As with the “Disinformation Dozen” report, it appears the CCDH simply chose 100 allegedly “hateful” tweets at random, reported them, and if a tweet wasn’t removed within four days, Twitter/X was judged to have intentionally permitted hate speech.
The report is the latest in what appears to be a dedicated campaign to drive Twitter/X out of business. In February 2023, the CCDH launched a #StopToxicTwitter campaign with the release of another report5 in which the group accused Twitter of “generat[ing] millions in ad revenue by bringing back banned accounts.”
The group called on advertisers to “stop bankrolling the spread of hate and disinformation” by removing their ads. CCDH founder and CEO Imran Ahmed even went on record accusing Musk personally of “undoing” decades of progress on tolerance “with the tacit approval of the advertisers who remain on his platform.”6 Since then, Twitter/X has reportedly lost about half of its ad revenue.7
Elon Musk Sues CCDH
July 31, 2023, Elon Musk struck back by filing a lawsuit against the CCDH,8,9,10 arguing the group is “actively working to prevent free expression” and spreading “troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically.”11
According to Musk, the CCDH engaged “in a series of unlawful acts designed to improperly gain access to protected X Corp. data” — including improperly obtained login credentials — for the purpose of creating a “scare campaign” to drive advertisers away from his platform.
According to X Corp’s legal team, the CCDH’s claims are “false, misleading, or both, and they are not supported by anything that could credibly be called research.”12
According to the complaint, the CCDH cherry-picked “from the hundreds of millions of posts made each day on X” to “falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content.”
Like the rest of us, Musk also wants to know who is bankrolling the CCDH. In a July 18, 2023, Twitter/X post, Musk reposted Facebook’s dismissal of “The Disinformation Dozen” report, stating, “Who is funding this organization? They spread disinformation and push censorship, while claiming the opposite. Truly evil.”
Two weeks later, the same day he filed his lawsuit against the CCDH, he tweeted out, “Let’s pull the mask off this organization and see who is really behind it.”13
In a letter14 to Ahmed, X Corp’s lawyer, Alex Spiro of the Quinn Emanuel legal firm, states they “have reason to believe” the CCDH is bankrolled by X Corp’s “commercial competitors, as well as government entities and their affiliates,” and that:
“To the extent that CCDH is passing off as impartial ‘research’ material that is in fact being funded in support of an ulterior agenda, your representations are all the more misleading, while reporting of the CCDH’s true economic motives and agenda are imperative.
Accordingly, we are investigating whether CCDH’s false and misleading claims about Twitter are actionable under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125 …”
In brief, section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125, refers to making claims about goods or services that are false or misleading representations of fact.15
