BNN Files Lawsuit Against Elon Musk's Twitter: The Untold Story of Our Battle with the Social Media Platform

BNN Breaking is actually one year old today. It’s hard to believe we’ve come this far. It’s hard to believe that we’re actually still alive.

See, that’s the irony. I’m fortunate that there are people who still believe in this crazy founder, long enough to stick around for this anniversary, amidst all of our shutdown attempts.

Our history started with Twitter.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we launched BNN to monitor every country globally, providing a backbone for transparency and preventing government data manipulation. From there, we transitioned into health news.

As our community grew, so did our mission.

“An informed world avoids conflict; an uninformed world creates it.”

Our mission has always been to inform and serve.

In May 2022, we broadened our coverage to include all "breaking news." And that’s when two things happened.

Lightning struck, but so too did the revelation of Twitter’s real problem.

Our consumption exploded. Our followers loved our unfiltered, unbiased, non-narrative content. What you see is what you got. Everyone, from general readers to politicians all over the world, became our readers and shared our news.

In June 2022, Roe v. Wade happened. We reported on both sides and the riots that ensued. A crucial takeaway that some overlook is that by solely reporting the news impartially, without bias, you create the opportunity for readers from both sides to engage. That's precisely what transpired with us. As the month drew to a close, we were on course to achieve a run rate of one billion impressions per month—all organically, and that's with a "b."

But that’s also when disaster struck. Through what is now known as “mass reporting” by “third-party actors”, all of our accounts were sabotaged, including all of BNN’s country newsroom accounts. We even lost our main account, which was on track to reach one-billion impressions, and had to start from scratch.

Against the backdrop of this, it was also during this time that Elon Musk was in the running to acquire Twitter. 

We all looked at that as hope. We believed in what he was saying. For a minute, even though it felt too good to be true, we needed something to believe.

What we also learned is that prior management didn't care for its customers, as you could get wiped out by “third party actors” through a “mass reporting” campaign and the company would simply stop communicating with you. My last email to prior management was read over 130+ times but responded not even once. This became a revolving theme in Twitter 1.0 and 2.0.

BNN, The “Rebirth”

So, we had to "re-invent" BNN from scratch. And we did exactly that. At that time, very little was known about Twitter, its actual “mDAUs”, and how “big” or "small" it really was. BNN began the initial #DataDrop series, which became viral, and journalists all over shared and engaged with it, including even Elon Musk and CZ from Binance, his eventual $500 million investor in Twitter.

This was the first glimpse the world got of how small Twitter really was and how big the “bot” problem really is.

During the first week of October, our remaining BNN accounts were “mass-reported” including my foundation's accounts. As an advertiser, our organization had spent $2 million+, including $330,000+ from The Chahal Foundation, for suicide prevention ads, only to have those accounts completely wiped out in this next “mass-reporting” attack.

That forced me to just turn my own account, @gchahal, with over 500,000+ followers, into a BNN reporting account that my editors could use to share our news with the world. And my wife, who is a successful Indian actress, also used her account, @bajwarubina24, to share some of BNN's stories.

Fast forward, the merger finally happened on October 27th. We all cheered for the revolution. After all, this was a chance to finally get our voices heard again. I even sent another letter to Musk's new counsel for help. It was read. But, nothing happened.

Musk did respond to a few of my other posts, but none regarding our difficulties.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Nothing changed.

Things just got worse

In January, the same "third party actors" started targeting my wife with "predatory" rape threats en masse. Twitter took no action, other than suspending my account for responding to the threats, which were "mass reported" by the same "third-party actors." Following that, they launched a "mass-reporting" campaign on my wife's account, leading to its suspension, even though she was the victim. The actual individuals behind the threats faced no consequences, and the hateful messages targeting my wife continued to spread to other platforms.

Apparently, Musk only cares when it affects his family. Not yours.

Days later, our accounts were restored without explanation.

We even launched our own #BNNFiles Series to investigate who these bad actors were.

At the end of February, while BNN was reporting on an important election in Africa, my account got suspended again. However, this time, I could no longer even access my account as the email had been altered. My wife’s account was suspended the next day. A few weeks later, the same exact situation unfolded with the Prime Minister of Nepal's account, but they managed to regain access.

In March, the same “third party actors” “mass reported” all remaining corporate accounts linked to the other companies I have founded and then even celebrated other hacking attempts proudly on Twitter. Some of these corporate accounts hadn't even tweeted for two years, yet they were still suspended for the standard "spam" and "platform manipulation" vague notices, clearly the result of the "mass reporting" tactics exploited on Twitter.

Twitter still did nothing.

This situation persisted within the realm of Twitter 2.0 and only intensified, even targeting our employees.

I struggle to understand how a CEO who wishes to make Twitter a bastion of "free speech" can allow this to happen, not only to my account and my wife's but also to BNN, a customer contributing to his real bottom line. Would Elon Musk ignore a customer who spent $2MM+ on $TSLA cars and experienced public issues with the hardware and software?

It has become evident that Twitter lacks an understanding of its "bot" problem or any viable solution. Instead, it's attempting to "lure" everyone to pay $7 or $11, sweeping the issue under the rug only to fool users into believing better days are ahead.

Musk's Twitter 2.0 is indifferent to the damage it inflicts, the reputational harm it brings to organizations, and, most importantly, the genuine threat it poses to human life.

Even as a former staunch Musk supporter, there comes a time when you must face reality and recognize that things are only getting worse.

How can you believe anything that he says? Or are you simply awaiting your wife to be targeted next?

I’m not waiting for more harm to my family, so I decided to finally sue Twitter. 

PROCURENET LIMITED and GURBAKSH CHAHAL v. TWITTER, INC. et al.
Case Number: CGC-23-605843

You can read our full complaint below.

Read more about the final theatrics that also led to the lawsuit below.

https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/who-really-controls-twitter-not-elon-musk/