Pro-censorship NGO works with White House to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’

The Center for Countering Digital Hate reportedly hopes advertising boycotts and help from leading Democrats will bring down X

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a U.K.-based nonprofit affiliated with the Labor Party, has taken aim “kill” Elon Musk’s X platform with the help of top Democrats in Washington, according to internal documents leaked by a whistleblower. Musk explained “War” about the organization in response.

In several monthly planners distributed to employees this year, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) lists “Kill Musk’s Twitter” This emerges from files leaked to journalists Matt Taibbi and Paul Thacker and published on Tuesday. In furtherance of this goal, CCDH staff are advised that they will do so “Focus” about advertising, “Trigger EU and UK regulatory action” And “Progressing Change in the U.S. and Supporting STAR.”

STAR is an acronym for “Safety, Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility” and is a proposed censorship law that would create a censorship law “independent digital regulator” Who could do that in the USA? “Impose penalties for harmful content.”

To drum up support for these goals, the CCDH contacted Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) in May and organized an invitation-only conference in Washington the following month, which, according to whistleblowers, was attended by a senior White House adviser, an aide of the Democratic Party in the office of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), officials at the U.S. State Department and the vice president of Media Matters for America, a Democratic-affiliated “watchdog” group.

Musk sued Media Matters earlier this year after the organization published a report claiming that advertising appeared alongside pro-Nazi posts on X. Musk called the report “manufactured”, and his lawsuit alleges that their sole purpose was to do so “Drive advertisers off the platform and destroy X Corp.”

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, renamed the platform X and reversed most of its censorship policies. Just days after Musk’s purchase, the White House announced the creation of the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board, which was derided as Orwellian by conservatives and free speech advocates “Ministry of Truth.” A week later, the CCDH joined two dozen other liberal NGOs in calling for an advertising boycott of X.

The CCDH was founded by Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former director of Labor Together, a think tank closely linked to Starmer’s Labor Party. Labor Together advised US Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, and more than 100 Labor Party activists are currently campaigning for Harris in the US.

CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, who worked with McSweeney at Labor Together, supported Starmer’s rise to power by leading advertising boycotts against his left-wing opponents. Those opponents included The Canary, a left-wing news site that was forced out of business by allegations of anti-Semitism by CCDH and its affiliate Stop Funding Fake News.

In the US, the CCDH has been lobbying the White House to censor Covid-19-related measures “Disinformation,” tried unsuccessfully to ban similar content from Substack and waged several campaigns against Musk.

According to internal documents, Ahmed is aware that CCDH’s activities could cross the line between advocacy and lobbying, which is illegal for nonprofits. Before meetings with lawmakers were scheduled earlier this year, someone in the organization advised staff to do so “Understanding our limits” as a non-profit organization, but still “We are only one centimeter closer to our goal of regulatory action.”

In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Musk explained the CCDH “a criminal organization” and explained that “This is war.”