X Sees Surge In Content Moderation Under Elon Musk

On Wednesday, X, formerly known as Twitter, released its first transparency report since being acquired by Elon Musk revealing a substantial rise in content moderation actions.

The report shows that in the first half of the year, nearly 5.3 million accounts were suspended, a sharp increase from the 1.6 million accounts suspended during the same period in 2022.

X also removed or labelled over 10.6 million posts for violating platform rules. Of these, around five million were flagged under the company's 'hateful conduct' policy. Other flagged categories included 2.2 million posts related to 'violent content' and 2.6 million concerning 'abuse and harassment'. The report did not specify how many posts were fully removed versus those only labelled.

Earlier in an April 2023 blog post, X noted that 6.5 million pieces of content violating its rules had been removed in the first half of 2022, representing a 29 per cent rise from the second half of 2021. This heightened content moderation has raised questions about the platform’s direction under Musk's leadership.

Critics argue that Musk’s acquisition has shifted X from a social media space to one marred by chaos and toxicity. Musk’s history of posting conspiracy theories and publicly clashing with political figures has further fuelled this perception. X is currently facing a ban in Brazil due to ongoing tensions between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court judge regarding free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

X enforces its rules through a mix of machine learning and human review with automated systems either taking direct action or escalating content to human moderators. The company claims posts violating its policies accounted for less than 1 per cent of all platform content.

Musk originally framed his 2022 Twitter acquisition as a bid to champion free speech. However, since assuming ownership in October 2022, he has enacted widespread layoffs and operational shifts, leading to a notable departure of celebrities, public figures and regular users.