X, previously Twitter, is attempting to placate lawmakers concerning the app’s security measures forward of a Huge Tech congressional listening to on Wednesday, which is able to give attention to how firms like X, Meta, TikTok, and others are defending children on-line. Over the weekend, the social media firm introduced by way of Bloomberg that it could employees a brand new “Trust and Safety” middle in Austin, Texas which is able to embrace 100 full-time content material moderators. The transfer comes over a 12 months after Elon Musk acquired the corporate, which noticed him drastically decreasing headcount, together with belief and security groups, moderators, engineers, and different employees.
Along with this, Axios earlier reported that X CEO Linda Yaccarino had been assembly final week with bipartisan members of the Senate, together with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, prematurely of the approaching listening to. The chief was stated to have mentioned with lawmakers how X was battling baby sexual exploitation (CSE) on its platform.
As Twitter, the corporate had a tough historical past with correctly moderating for CSE — one thing that was the topic of a kid security lawsuit in 2021. Though Musk inherited the issue from Twitter’s former administration, together with many different struggles, there was concern that the CSE drawback has worsened beneath his management — notably given the layoffs of the belief and security group members.
After taking the reins at Twitter, Musk had promised that addressing the difficulty of CSE content material was his No. 1 precedence, however a 2022 report by Enterprise Insider indicated that there have been nonetheless posts the place individuals had been requesting the content material. The corporate that 12 months additionally added a brand new characteristic to report CSE materials. Nonetheless, in 2023, Musk welcomed again an account that had been banned for posting CSE photographs beforehand, resulting in questions round X’s enforcement of its insurance policies. Final 12 months, an investigation by The New York Occasions discovered that CSE imagery continued to unfold on X’s platform even after the corporate is notified and that extensively circulated materials that’s simpler for firms to determine had additionally remained on-line. This report stood in stark distinction to X’s own statements that claimed the corporate had aggressively approached the difficulty with elevated account suspensions and adjustments to look.
Bloomberg’s report on X’s plan so as to add moderators was mild on key particulars, like when the brand new middle can be open, for example. Nonetheless it did word that the moderators can be employed full-time by the corporate.
“X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it’s important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content,” an govt at X, Joe Benarroch, informed the outlet.
X additionally published a blog post on Friday detailing its progress in combatting CSE, noting that it suspended 12.4 million accounts in 2023 for CSE, up from 2.3 million in 2022. It additionally despatched 850,000 studies to the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC) final 12 months, greater than 8 occasions the quantity despatched in 2022. Whereas these metrics are supposed to present an elevated response to the issue, they might point out that these in search of to share CSE content material are more and more now utilizing X to take action.