Over 1,000 Employees at Elon Musk’s X Are Charged With Eliminating Abusive Content

Globally, Elon Musk’s X has let go of almost a thousand employees from teams tasked with removing offensive information from the internet, according to data that Australia’s Internet agency revealed on Thursday.

The “deep cuts” and the reactivation of thousands of banned accounts, according to Australia’s eSafety Commission, have created a “perfect storm” for the distribution of hazardous information.

The watchdog has focused heavily on X, formerly known as Twitter, in recent months. It was previously said that Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company was accompanied by an increase in “toxicity and hate” on the site.

The eSafety Commission has acquired a comprehensive list of software engineers, content moderators, and other safety personnel employed by X via the use of Australia’s ground-breaking Online Safety Act.

Former Twitter employee Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that this was the first time these numbers had been released to the public.

They revealed that 1,213 contractors and other specialized “trust and safety staff” have departed X since Elon Musk bought company in October 2022.

According to Inman Grant, this included 80% of the software developers who concentrated on “trust and safety issues”.

“To take 80 percent of these specialist engineers away, it would be like Volvo — known for its safety standards — eradicating all of their designers or engineers,” she said to AFP.

It’s a perfect storm for you. You’re bringing back repeat offenders onto the platform and significantly reducing your defenses.”

Leading the worldwide movement to control social media, Australia has made tech firms disclose their approaches to combating problems including hate speech and child sex abuse.

However, efforts to use these abilities have sometimes been greeted with hostility.

The eSafety Commission fined X Aus$610,500 (US$388,000) in October of last year for failing to provide evidence of its efforts to suppress child pornography.

However, X started a legal battle to get the fine reversed after ignoring the deadline to pay it.

X sent an automatic message saying “busy now, please check back later” in response to AFP’s request for comment. X did not respond to the request for comment.