Democrats to Elon Musk: Knock It Off With 'Hostile Stance' Against Researchers

pcmag.com:

Elon Musk's decision to sue a nonprofit critical of Twitter has sparked three Democratic lawmakers to push back on the lawsuit, which they say risks silencing independent research into social media platforms.

“Independent research is critical to understanding the proliferation of hate speech and extremism online,” Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sean Casten (D-IL) wrote(Opens in a new window) in a Tuesday letter. It arrived a day after Musk filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for publishing research that argues Twitter is failing to crack down on racist, homophobic, and antisemitic tweets.

Twitter — also known as X — claims the CCDH is an activist group masquerading as a nonprofit that's conspiring to drive advertisers away from Twitter by using flawed research. However, the CCDH says Musk, a pro-free speech advocate, is simply being a hypocrite in trying to silence legitimate criticism of his company. 

The controversy triggered the three Democratic lawmakers to send a letter(Opens in a new window) to Musk and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, arguing the company is taking a “hostile stance” against independent research into social media platforms. 

“By filing suit against the CCDH, X is uniquely resisting those important efforts and stifling unbiased research in the public interest,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The letter also demands the company answer six questions about opening Twitter’s API access to independent researchers. Earlier this year, the company began closing off free access to its API, which previously allowed researchers to examine all the tweets flowing across the platform. Instead, Twitter is reportedly(Opens in a new window) asking third parties to pay at least