X Takes Swift Action on Content Moderation Amidst Israel-Hamas Conflict, Responding to EU Commissioner's Concerns

X addresses concerns from EU regarding Israel-Hamas disinformation handling. As a response, Linda Yaccarino highlights the removal of numerous parts and Hamas-linked accounts.

Addressing Challenges Associated with Israel-Hamas Conflict

X Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino has outlined a strategic reallocation of the company's resources and an internal restructuring. Engadget reported that these measures aim to address the platform's specific challenges associated with the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

She has discussed the actions taken to combat the spread of fake news related to the Hamas attacks on Israel and to counteract content supporting terrorism and violence in response to concerns raised by EU officials.

Yaccarino's response detailed X's extensive actions since the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict. She explained that the platform has either taken down or appropriately tagged "tens of thousands of pieces of content" during this period.

Moreover, X has already eliminated several hundred accounts associated with Hamas from its platform, while actively collaborating with counter-terrorism groups to obstruct the dissemination of terrorist-related content.

Yaccarino disclosed that the platform currently boasts an impressive 700 Community Notes associated with the ongoing conflict, a testament to the website's crowd-sourced fact-checking feature.

In an effort to combat misinformation, approximately 5,000 posts featuring images and videos have received these crowd-sourced messages. Yaccarino noted that these notes materialize within minutes for media and image posts, while text posts display them within a median period of five hours.

However, X is actively working to further expedite the appearance of these notes on posts.

Facing Concern from EU

On October 10, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent an "urgent letter" to Elon Musk, emphasizing X's responsibilities under the Digital Services Act in the European region.

Breton voiced the EU's apprehensions regarding the platform, formerly Twitter, being utilized for the distribution of illegal content and disinformation. This encompassed the recycling of outdated imagery from unrelated conflict zones and military scenes borrowed from video games.

He pointed out problematic content, such as manipulated images from unrelated conflicts and misrepresented video game footage, falsely portrayed as actual military engagements.

Furthermore, he voiced unease regarding the recent revisions to the platform's public interest policy. These alterations had generated uncertainty among numerous European users regarding the acceptable content standards.

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) researchers shared with Wired that their platforms had become inundated with deceptive information, complicating their reliance on X for information gathering. In the past, timely posts from on-the-ground news outlets and credible sources were prominent on users' timelines.

However, the website's algorithm now gives priority to posts from users who pay $8 a month for verification badges, even if these posts contain misleading content and falsehoods.

Furthermore, the situation was exacerbated when Musk endorsed two accounts known for disseminating false information, particularly for those seeking updates on the ongoing conflict. Disturbingly, one of these accounts openly posted antisemitic remarks.