X is fighting Andrew Tate’s attempt to unmask his critics

X is fighting for its users’ right to anonymity against the far-right influencers and accused human traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are seeking to unmask their online critics. The Tate brothers filed suit against the owners of more than a dozen social media accounts — several of them run pseudonymously — last year, claiming the accounts engaged in a “Conspiratorial Plot” to defame them. After a Florida court said the claims couldn’t be brought against unidentified defendants, they filed an amended complaint against the users they could identify, and a complaint against X demanding it disclose the anonymous account holders in order to go after them, too. Last month, an attorney for the so-called Doe defendants filed a motion for a protective order seeking to block their personal information from being disclosed. Now, in a May 11th response, X has objected as well — saying that among several other legal deficiencies, the request puts First Amendment rights seriously in jeopardy. “The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that the right to speak anonymously on the internet, including via social media platforms, is protected,” the complaint says. …