X makes cuts to disinformation and election integrity team
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 2 years ago • 44 commentsBy: Brandy Zadrozny and Jason Abbruzzese
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has slashed the number of people on its disinformation and election integrity team just weeks after it said it was hiring for new positions to help it guard against foreign interference.
The cuts, first reported by the tech-focused media outlet The Information, included Aaron Rodericks, the head of the team, said a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concerns about professional consequences.
The person familiar with the cuts said four people had been let go — the entirety of X's election integrity unit in its Dublin office.It's unclear how many people remain on the team.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
X owner Elon Musk leaves the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 13.Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images file
X had recently posted job openings on its "threat disruption" team, and in August it published a blog post detailing its efforts to ensure "accurate and safe political discourse on X."
"We're currently expanding our safety and elections teams to focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closely monitoring the platform for emerging threats," the company said in the blog post.
CEO Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising executive, also recently told The Financial Times that the company plans to expand its trust and safety and elections teams (NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News).
The cuts, which were reported on the day of the second Republican presidential primary debate, are part of X's broader pullback from its efforts to address false information and foreign interference that once ran rampant on the platform. Owner Elon Musk instituted broad layoffs when he took over the company, some of them on its once-sizable "trust and safety" team.
Since then, X has remained in flux, with many other high-level trust and safety staffers leaving, including Yoel Roth and Ella Irwin, each of whom lasted only a handful of months atop the division.
Musk has also aggressively criticized the company's previous moderation efforts, releasing internal documents that he and conservative commentators have claimed showed a liberal bent to how it handled elections and misinformation.
In recent months, conservative users who had been critical of X's content moderation policies took to posting Rodericks' previous tweets and likes, suggesting he was working against Musk's vision of a so-called free speech platform.
Rodericks secured a temporary injunction in an Irish court last week restraining the company from further disciplinary proceedings. According to The Irish Times, Rodericks told the court that X executives were punishing him because he "demonstrated hostility" with posts critical of Musk and Yaccarino.
The Information's report quickly triggered criticism from some tech watchdogs. The Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit organization that supports breaking up large tech companies, pointed to a recent European Commission report that found X had the largest uptick in disinformation and Russian propaganda of any tech platform from January to May.
"Since taking charge of X, Elon Musk has used the platform to foment antisemitism, hate speech, and disinformation — playing into the hands of bad actors like Russia, China, and Iran," Kyle Morse, the deputy executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, said in a news release. "Decimating their election integrity team — on top of last year's firings — means that X will continue to be a toxic hellscape that people and advertisers should avoid."
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It's amazingly obvious. This is Musk's play to oligarchs having their control over the world. Confuse the masses through dazzling BS coming from all around the world. Musk is revealing why he bought this enterprise in the first place. The goal is clear (to me).
Nonsense. It can't get any worse than it was in under the previous ownership, when the "integrity team" happily collaborated with the FBi and White House in their disinformation campaign and censorship.
The current claims of disinformation, antisemitism, and hate speech are unsupported.
Seems those same claims could be made of several here.
You put "integrity team" in quotes. Why? This ridiculous notion that some how we can have a set of government systems without people populating positions is nonsense. I don't know what you want this country to look like, but let me say this: A collection of UN-UNITED STATES would look like the joke the wording appears!
Turning former Twitter into a den of iniquities and a free-for-all won't win Musk any 'awards.' Hell, I am told, and I believe it—sane people don't like chaos in their dealings.
I stand by what I wrote, because truth matters and BS walks.
That a far-right winger [removed] would say that means what?
Is it upside down day, black is white day again?
Misinformation? Well you could start with the Mar-a-Lago dude saying, "I'm like a really smart guy."
Are you sure about that Greg?
Show me the evidence/proof.
Look at the slides on this link:
Yes.
No.
It's not his fault the masses are easily confused.
I doubt that very seriously.
He bought Twitter because he didn't like being told he couldn't say anything liberals didn't like.... and he was rich enough to win that fight.
You are part of the "masses" - Yes or No? So what does that say about you? Or, are you in the oligarch class? The time has come to stand for something and stop fence-straddling!
Are we really trying to prevent foreign disinformation?
How do we verify foreign disinformation?
Back when X was Twitter during the 2020 election a factual news story was censored.
During the pandemic under Joe Biden, Twitter censored medical experts who questioned CDC pronouncements.
This article is 1) a hit job on Musk & 2) another attempt to conflate preventing foreign propaganda with blatant censorship.
Voted down,
I refuse to use X until it's sold and run by competent people.
Never been to Twitter, X, Facebook, Instagram, etc...
It's all I can do to deal with the crap that goes on here.
Guess I'm just a small-town boy at heart.
I feel that way about the Dallas Cowboys.
Community Notes is the closest thing to an actual fact checker that I've seen.
So fact checking by committee is your reality?
What is your fact checking reality?
Intelligent folk who actually believe in facts and truth.
Doing exhaustive research rather than playing juvenile political games.
Truth isn't just a matter of opinion.
Truth isn't just a matter of consensus.
What is yours?
Glenn Kessler, Wash Post
He won't be happy until is X is ash
Putin needs a mouthpiece in Western media. Musk has stepped up. Unfortunately, I suspect the monetary benefit will be far less than expected. Of course, I could also be incorrect. But I doubt it.
Musk is making a major play for 'theft' of the country. I can't believe what I am watching, but it's true. These. . .people. . .are serious about NOT letting go of the power to control other people's lives and minds. Musk is decidely NOT a friend of the common man or woman. Time we realize it and take ACTION according.
Musk is going to be a really big problem with this "X" service of his next year! Count on it.
Time to plan NOW on how to deal with "X" (and Musk)!
Never been on Twitter, sure as hell won't be on X.
I have a Twitter account that responds to me with information unrelated to politics. I will keep the account for that purpose alone as usual. I will not use "X" for political discussion, as I have never done so.
Twitter has NEVER been a good source of information. Anytime I hear about something on Twitter it has a gigantic asterisk by it in my mind.