US Judge Charles R. Breyer has sided with the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), dismissing a high-profile lawsuit filed by Elon Musk and his social media company, X. Musk’s Lawsuit Against CCDH Last year, Musk’s X, formerly Twitter Inc, sued the nonprofit CCDH over its report describing the extent of hate speech on the social media platform. Led by Imran Ahmed, CCDH aims to protect online human rights and civil liberties. The CCDH report said that X failed to act against 99% of 100 Blue accounts that it had
A New York judge has ruled that Reddit and YouTube must confront lawsuits accusing them of contributing to the radicalization of an 18-year-old who perpetrated a racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. The Platforms’ Part In The Racial Attack The tragic incident, which resulted in the loss of 10 Black lives in 2022, has raised concerns about the role of social media algorithms in potentially encouraging extremism. Everytown Law, a gun control advocacy group, filed the lawsuits on behalf of 25 survivors of the massacre last year. The decision by Erie County Supreme
Jalon Hall, Google’s only Black Deaf employee, has claimed mistreatment and discrimination at the company and has filed a lawsuit. Hall’s Story As reported by the WIRED, in 2020, Hall, an enthusiastic criminal justice master’s graduate, was surprised to receive a LinkedIn message about a job opportunity at Google. Despite her initial skepticism, the offer was genuine, and Hall was soon hired to join Wolverine, a new in-house team tasked with moderating YouTube videos. Her journey to this role was untraditional, as her previous job was at a law firm, where she delved
Tesla Inc. is currently involved in a significant lawsuit involving nearly 6,000 Black employees from its California factory. The group, alleging rampant racism at Tesla’s Fremont plant, received tentative approval from Judge Noël Wise of Alameda County Superior Court to proceed with their class-action lawsuit. This development underscores a continuing struggle with racial discrimination allegations for the renowned electric vehicle manufacturer. A ‘hotbed’ of racism The lawsuit, initiated in 2017 by Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, claims the factory’s production floor was a “hotbed of racist behavior,” with racial slurs routinely used by co-workers
Fearless Fund has filed an appeal against a court ruling that temporarily blocked their grant program for Black women entrepreneurs. The ruling came amid an ongoing lawsuit by the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), which alleged the fund’s grant program was racially discriminatory. The Racial Bias Lawsuit Black-woman-owned venture capital fund Fearless Fund invests in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level, or series A financing. The AAER brought a lawsuit against them in August 2023. Notably, AAER founder Edward Blum is the conservative activist behind the Supreme Court’s affirmative
A Kenyan High Court has reportedly granted the Asset Recovery Agency’s (ARA) request to drop its final lawsuit against Flutterware, a Nigerian payment company. A Re-Run Of Flutterwave To Date Flutterwave was founded in 2016 and achieved unicorn status in 2021, leaving it valued at $3 billion by February 2022. This made the company the most valuable African startup before facing several allegations and reports of the CEO Olugbenga Agboola bullying and harassing staff. There were also allegations that Agboola illegally exploited assets, participated in financial impropriety, and operated without
A former Black worker at AT&T, Stacey Fowler, has filed a lawsuit against the telecommunications company, alleging she was fired for reporting a racist threat she received. The complaint accuses the company’s Midwest division and Ohio Bell Telephone Company, an AT&T subsidiary, of “abhorrent and shocking conduct.” The Racist Threat According to The Daily Beast, Fowler, a Black woman, was the most senior person after working over 30 years in AT&T’s Ohio office at the time of her firing. She told the news site that the company was due to
Online resource business Hello Alice is the latest company to be named in a lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against business owners based on race. A class action lawsuit alleges the company’s partnership with Progressive Insurance Company, which offered $25,000 grants to 10 Black-owned small businesses, violates civil rights. Hello Alice and Progressive Partnership Hello Alice, founded by Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore in 2017, is a digital platform helping small businesses launch and grow through access to capital. They partner with corporations looking to reach and support new entrepreneurs through
Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing company, SpaceX, is facing a class action lawsuit for alleged wage discrimination based on gender and race. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that SpaceX systematically pays its women and minority employees less than their white male counterparts for equivalent job roles. Same work, different pay Ashley Foltz, a propulsion engineer at SpaceX, joined the company in September 2022. She was hired at a salary of $92,000, while her white male counterparts with similar or less experience were offered as much
A federal court has temporarily blocked Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women entrepreneurs amid an ongoing lawsuit by the American Alliance for Equal Rights. The decision reverses last week’s ruling by US District Judge Thomas V. Thrash, ultimately denying the conservative group’s allegation that the program was racially discriminatory. The Lawsuit Against Fearless Fund Fearless Fund invests in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level or series A financing. The American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by Edward Blum, brought a lawsuit against Fearless Fund in August 2023.
