X, led by Elon Musk, promises to establish a ‘trust and safety’ office with 100 employees to monitor and regulate content.
Elon Musk’s X, previously known as Twitter, has announced its intention to construct a new facility called the “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas. The purpose of this center is to aid in the enforcement of content and safety regulations.
According to X’s COO Joe Benarroch, the company’s goal is to hire 100 full-time content moderators for the new location. The group focuses on combating child sexual abuse material, but will help enforce the social media platform’s other rules, which include restrictions on hate speech and violent messages, he added. The company did not specify when this new center will be operational.
“X does not have a child-focused business, but it is important that we make these investments to prevent criminals from using our platform to distribute or engage with any CSE content,” Benarroch said. People must be at least 13 years old to open an account on X, and the company says less than 1% of its daily users are between the ages of 13 and 17. Advertisers cannot target people 17 and under.
Musk has been criticized for cutting X’s trust and security functions since he took over the company in October 2022. He has also rolled back some policies, including policies on misinformation, in an effort to bring free speech back to the service.
The timing of X’s announcement comes just days before CEO Linda Yaccarino is scheduled to appear before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on children’s online safety. He will be joined by the CEOs of other major tech companies, including Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., TikTok and Discord.
Yaccarino was in Washington last week to speak with senators from both sides of the aisle ahead of the upcoming hearing. While the discussions focused on X’s efforts on CSE and other types of problematic content, he also tried to highlight the ways in which X differs from Twitter and the company’s past policies and leadership, Benarroch added.
