Elon Musk Dismantles X’s Election Security Groups Before Crucial Ballots

Elon Musk, the owner of X, revealed that he had significantly reduced the team responsible for safeguarding election integrity on the platform, just as crucial elections are on the horizon in numerous countries.

“Oh, you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ team that undermined the integrity of the election? Yes, they’re gone,” Musk wrote in a post Wednesday in response to a report by The Information magazine.

The online store said X, formerly known as Twitter, is cutting half of its global team focused on monitoring and curbing disinformation and fraud around major elections.

Next year, more than 50 major elections are expected around the world, including the US presidential election, but also in India, Africa and the European Union.

The cut came just after EU regulators found X to have the largest share of disinformation among major social networks in an analysis by Brussels.

A new EU regulation forces tech companies to better monitor content to protect European users from disinformation and hate speech, and violators can face fines.

The job cuts appear to contradict recent statements by X CEO Linda Yaccarino. He told the Financial Times this week that the platform is expanding Teams around the world ahead of the busy election season.

Asked about the report in a separate interview at the Vox Code conference on Wednesday, Yaccarino said election integrity was “something we take very seriously.”

“Contrary to the comments made, X has a robust and growing team wrapped up in election integrity,” he added.

In his discussion, Yaccarino also said that X will make a profit early next year.

He also refused to confirm that X would start charging money to all its users, hinting that it was an “idea” and not a plan.

In a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, Musk said introducing a “small monthly fee” for X was the only way to combat the legions of automated accounts, or bots, plaguing the site.