Platform X is defending its users' right to anonymity against far-right influencers and accused human traffickers, Tristan and Andrew Tate, who seek to expose their online critics.
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The Tate brothers filed a lawsuit against the owners of more than a dozen social media accounts — several of them operating under pseudonyms — last year, alleging that the accounts engaged in a “conspiracy” to defame them. After a Florida court ruled that claims could not be brought against unidentified defendants, they filed an amended complaint against the users they could identify, as well as a complaint against Platform X demanding that it reveal the anonymous account holders so they could also prosecute them.
Last month, an attorney for the so-called Doe defendants filed a petition for a protective order seeking to block the disclosure of their personal information. Now, in a May 11 response, Platform X has also objected — saying that, among other legal deficiencies, the request seriously jeopardizes First Amendment rights.
“The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that the right to anonymous expression online, including on social media platforms, is protected,” the complaint states. While these protections are not absolute, it says, the lawsuit has failed to satisfy the First Amendment safeguards required to prevent chilling effects — and “discourages participation in the marketplace of ideas for fear of being exposed for expressing potentially unpopular views.”
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The accounts in question were following legal action against Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynist accused of rape and human trafficking in the UK and Romania, and his brother, who is also accused of some of the same crimes. Both deny the charges. In their initial complaint, the Tates say some of the allegedly defamatory statements the accounts posted included calling Andrew Tate a “persistent liar” and a “trainer.”.
The legal battle pits various factions aligned with MAGA against each other. The Tate brothers returned to the US in 2025, with the help of the Trump administration. Platform X owner Elon Musk — who has been a close Trump ally at times — has previously helped boost their online presence, reinstating Tate's Twitter account in 2022 after taking over the platform.
However, Musk has also (very debatably) positioned himself as an "absolute supporter of free speech," while taking a particularly tough stance on anything he considers "doxing" on the X platform.
Tate's demands — to reveal information about users in order to stop them from speaking out — may seem like he's abandoning both of these principles at once.
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Nathan Pope, a creator who goes by the social media handle Gadget, was initially referred to only by his online alias in the brothers’ initial complaint against him and other defendants. In a later amended complaint, Pope (who does not hide his identity online) was directly named. In an email to The Verge, Pope says he was “particularly concerned by recent efforts to unmask anonymous defendants, especially given the implications for free speech.”
