Facing lawsuit from Musk, nonprofit head says he won't stop exposing Twitter's problems

Imran Ahmed refuses to beryllium intimidated by Elon Musk. And he's insisting that researchers astatine his nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate stay arsenic unafraid.

Earlier this week, the institution formerly known arsenic Twitter filed a lawsuit successful national tribunal against the CCDH, aft the enactment successful June published research that Musk didn't like. The radical recovered a emergence successful hatred code connected Twitter since Musk purchased the institution past year, and said X, arsenic it's present known, fails to instrumentality enactment against paying subscribers who station racist, homophobic, conspiratorial and different inflammatory content.

In an interrogation with CNBC, Ahmed said the CCDH has nary plans to suspend its probe into the dispersed of hateful contented and different emerging problems it finds connected the societal media platform. Rather, Ahmed told staffers successful a gathering aft helium heard astir the suit that they should "double down" connected probing X.

"I've never, ever, ever walked distant from a fight," Ahmed said.

Ahmed, 44, lives successful Washington, D.C., though helium studied successful the U.K. astatine the University of Cambridge. He founded the CCDH successful 2018 aft the death of Jo Cox, a U.K. Labour Party workfellow and subordinate of parliament, by a achromatic supremist who was reportedly "a loner obsessed with Nazis."

Lawyers representing X alleged successful this week's suit that the CCDH improperly obtained entree to societal media investigation instrumentality Brandwatch and besides illegally scraped information from Twitter utilizing different methods. The attorneys claimed the CCDH has utilized "flawed methodologies to beforehand incorrect, misleading narratives" that person driven distant X's advertisers, damaging its business.

X is seeking a assemblage trial, unspecified monetary damages, and wants to artifact CCDH and immoderate of its collaborators oregon employees from accessing information provided by X to Brandwatch.

Ahmed declined to remark astir the specifics of the lawsuit though helium noted that X has not yet physically served him oregon the CCDH with a lawsuit.

He's accustomed to the criticism.

Prior to the challenges from X, Meta and TikTok took contented with the CCDH's probe methodology aft the radical released reports alleging those platforms fostered misinformation and content that could harm the intelligence wellness of teenagers.

However, neither of those companies went truthful acold arsenic to writer the nonprofit oregon allege that it acted unlawfully.

The suit from X follows a erstwhile letter sent from different instrumentality steadfast representing the company, accusing the CCDH of mendacious and misleading claims linked to a abstracted trademark-related instrumentality known arsenic the Lanham Act.

Ahmed characterized Musk's actions toward his enactment arsenic those of "a antheral who is desperately sportfishing astir for ways to blasted idiosyncratic else."

X did not respond to questions astir the suit oregon erstwhile it plans to service CCDH with it. The institution issued a connection to CNBC, reiterating anterior comments and accusing the nonprofit of spreading mendacious claims against X to stymie nationalist discourse. Prior to the lawsuit, Musk referred to Ahmed arsenic a "rat" and the nonprofit arsenic "truly evil."

Brandwatch and its genitor institution Cision didn't respond to requests for comment.

Ahmed defended the CCDH against claims that it's a "censorship organization," and besides changeable down allegations successful the ailment and from Musk that the radical is covertly bankrolled by imaginable competitors oregon overseas governments.

"I made wide that we don't instrumentality wealth from tech companies, societal media companies, and we don't instrumentality wealth from governments," Ahmed said. "We instrumentality wealth from philanthropic trusts and the public. If radical privation to donate, they tin donate to america here."

The CCDH has provided grounds to the governments of the U.S. and U.K. connected Internet harms, and advocated for the U.K.'s Online Safety Bill, which was designed to marque societal media companies much liable for the information of their users.

When it comes to Musk, Ahmed has a peculiar constituent to make: He doesn't "understand however escaped code genuinely works."

He's a "self-proclaimed champion of escaped speech," Ahmed said, but helium "doesn't recognize the marketplace of ideas."

Ultimately, Ahmed's decision is that, "Musk is behaving similar a similar a kid who simply cannot instrumentality work for the information that helium pooped successful his ain pants and it wasn't idiosyncratic other that did it for him."

Earlier this week, 3 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Musk and X, accusing the world's richest idiosyncratic of taking a "hostile stance" toward autarkic researchers. They said the studies person "raised morganatic and superior questions regarding X's concern practices since Mr. Musk's acquisition."

But Musk has his backers connected the different broadside of the aisle.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to the CCDH and Ahmed arsenic portion of a broader "censorship investigation." The letter, which the CCDH confirmed it received connected Thursday, said the committee is seeking documents from the nonprofit that amusement its "interactions" with the national government, including the Biden administration, and societal media companies.

"The Committee connected the Judiciary is conducting oversight of however and to what grade the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and different intermediaries to censor speech," Jordan wrote. "Certain 3rd parties, including organizations similar yours, look to person played a relation successful this censorship authorities by advising the authorities and societal media companies connected alleged 'misinformation' and different types of contented — sometimes with nonstop oregon indirect enactment oregon support from the national government."

Ahmed said that successful the days since the X suit was made public, the CCDH has received "hundreds of donations" and "so galore messages of support" from organizations including Amnesty International, the Anti-Defamation League, Friends of the Earth, and Planned Parenthood.

Other groups that person voiced enactment for CCDH see LGBTQ advocator GLAAD, the Molly Rose Foundation, the Free Press, Check My Ads and Coalition for Independent Tech Research.

Ahmed said these organizations admit what's astatine stake, particularly arsenic Musk shows his expanding willingness to usage his wealthiness and powerfulness to inject his ideologies onto a large communications platform.

There are "all these different groups who are each coming retired going, nary no, our accusation ecosystem is valuable," Ahmed said. "We person the close to remark connected it, connected the backstage companies who administer important parts of it."

WATCH: Elon Musk has imaginativeness to marque Twitter into 'an everything app' with X rebrand.