On Monday night the safety team for X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, detailed what they say are recent actions taken to limit hateful and violent posts and combat misinformation following the Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend.
Among other things, the safety team said in a statement that it has removed “hundreds” of Hamas-affiliated accounts that were created after the attacks, and has “actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct.”
In addition, the statement says, users have been granted greater control over the content they see in order to prevent graphic or violent images from displaying on their timelines. It says that efforts to monitor antisemitism have been increased, and that Community Notes — user-generated fact checks — are being applied to tweets in real time.
According to the company, there have been “more than 50 million posts” focused in some way on the conflict since the attacks, which began early Saturday morning and have already resulted in more than 1500 deaths, including 900 Israelis.
Meanwhile, The Information reported on Monday that the company recently stopped using in-house tools that identify and track misinformation and fraudulent accounts.
Read on for the X Safety Team’s list of actions.
“Over the weekend, we updated our Public Interest Policy. We know that it’s sometimes incredibly difficult to see certain content, especially in moments like the one unfolding. In these situations, X believes that, while difficult, it’s in the public’s interest to understand what’s happening in real time. People on X can also control what media they see. In the “Content you see” settings you can choose whether or not to see sensitive media.”
“We’ve also taken action under our Violent and Hateful Entities Policy to remove newly created Hamas-affiliated accounts and we’re currently coordinating with industry peers through @GIFCT_official to try and prevent terrorist content from being distributed online.”
“Our escalation teams have actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct. We’re also continuing to proactively monitor for antisemitic speech as part of all our efforts. Plus we’ve taken action to remove several hundred accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics.”
“Community Notes are now live on posts and new accounts are being enrolled in real time to propose and rate notes. Community Notes typically appear within minutes of content posting. Notes on photos and videos also appear whenever the media is reposted by other users. This is a critical tool for helping to combat potential misinformation. X is committed to the safety of our platform and to giving people information as quickly as possible. In the coming days, we will continue to keep our community updated.”
