US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said it was "evident" that Musk's X Corp sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) because he didn't like its criticism, and thought its research would hurt X's image and scare advertisers away.

"X Corp has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp, and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism," Breyer wrote.

"It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp is far more concerned about CCDH's speech than it is its data collection methods," he added.

X, in a statement, said it plans to appeal.

--Reuters--