Musk’s X rebuffs accusations of helping spread disinformation about Israel-Hamas conflict
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X Corp owner Elon Musk has himself recommended that X users follow accounts known for spreading false information.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SAN FRANCISCO – Billionaire Elon Musk’s X said it has scrubbed or labelled tens of thousands of posts, including “illegal” content, since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, responding to warnings to stem the spread of fake news around the conflict.
Chief executive Linda Yaccarino posted her formal response after European Commissioner Thierry Breton urged Silicon Valley’s social media players
Mr Breton said X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, was hosting illegal content and called on Mr Musk to take quick action.
X has assembled a dedicated group to assess the situation and removed hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas, Ms Yaccarino said in a four-page response to the commissioner.
Apart from wiping problematic content, the Community Notes feature – through which people append context – helped millions of users share and understand posts, she wrote.
Hours after Hamas gunmen surged into Israel, unverified photos and videos of air strikes, homes being destroyed and other posts depicting military violence proliferated on social media platforms, including X, prompting criticism of their response to the conflict.
Mr Musk himself recommended that users follow accounts known for spreading false or misleading information, in a post on Sunday that has since been deleted.
Under his ownership, X has made changes to its content policies and the consequences are surfacing in a moment of geopolitical crisis, researchers say.
Over the past year, the platform loosened rules, cut trust-and-safety employees after previously saying it would expand the team, reinstated once-banned accounts and allowed people to pay for a check mark – previously reserved for verified accounts – on the social network.
Mr Musk and Mr Breton built up a relationship over the past year, in part through a common interest in chips and satellites.
The commissioner paid a visit to X’s headquarters during his tour of Silicon Valley in June and greeted Ms Yaccarino, who was then less than three weeks into the job.
In a sign that the relationship may be fraying, Mr Breton on Wednesday opened an account on the Bluesky platform, writing that it “feels less crowded – yet more human – without all those bots”. BLOOMBERG
