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Australia has criticised Elon Musk-owned X for its failure to control harmful content on its platform and for not fully complying with a legal notice. The Australian eSafety Commissioner, in its recent transparency report, highlighted that X has significantly reduced its trust and safety teams since its acquisition by the tech billionaire in October 2022.
Globally, X has reduced its trust and safety staff by 30% and 45% for the Asia-Pacific region. The number of engineers dedicated to trust and safety issues worldwide has been reduced by 80%, while content moderators hired by X have been cut by 52%, according to eSafety.
X has also reduced its global public policy staff by 68% and its public policy staff in the APAC region by 73%.
What eSafety Commissioner has to say
The eSafety Commissioner stated in its report, “Having an adequate number of trust and safety personnel is crucial for ensuring online safety. Companies with a limited number of such personnel may have limited capacity to address online hate and other harmful content.”
As a result, the burden of safety often falls on the users or groups who experience abuse, rather than the platform taking responsibility for harmful content and behaviour on their service, the report added.
When asked if Twitter had staff dedicated to addressing hateful conduct, X responded that there were no full-time staff specifically dedicated to this issue globally, and no specific team for this policy.
X also mentioned that a broader cross-functional team handles these issues and collaborates on policies related to toxicity as a whole, according to the report.
In response to the legal notice, X confirmed that Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council was disbanded in December 2022 and had not been replaced with another advisory body concerning the safety of users, including hateful conduct.
Globally, X has reduced its trust and safety staff by 30% and 45% for the Asia-Pacific region. The number of engineers dedicated to trust and safety issues worldwide has been reduced by 80%, while content moderators hired by X have been cut by 52%, according to eSafety.
X has also reduced its global public policy staff by 68% and its public policy staff in the APAC region by 73%.
What eSafety Commissioner has to say
The eSafety Commissioner stated in its report, “Having an adequate number of trust and safety personnel is crucial for ensuring online safety. Companies with a limited number of such personnel may have limited capacity to address online hate and other harmful content.”
As a result, the burden of safety often falls on the users or groups who experience abuse, rather than the platform taking responsibility for harmful content and behaviour on their service, the report added.
When asked if Twitter had staff dedicated to addressing hateful conduct, X responded that there were no full-time staff specifically dedicated to this issue globally, and no specific team for this policy.
X also mentioned that a broader cross-functional team handles these issues and collaborates on policies related to toxicity as a whole, according to the report.
In response to the legal notice, X confirmed that Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council was disbanded in December 2022 and had not been replaced with another advisory body concerning the safety of users, including hateful conduct.
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