X, formerly known as Twitter, has defended its decision to reinstate an account that posted material that depicted child abuse on the platform. The right-wing account’s post was seen by over three million users and was reposted by 8,000 of those. At that point, the post was removed and the account was suspended. Despite those figures, Elon Musk, who bought the app last year and is now the social media giant’s executive chairman, said that only X’s child exploitation team had seen the tweet.
According to The Guardian, Kathleen Reen, X’s Asia-Pacific Head of Global Affairs, spoke to members on the Australian parliamentary committee on law enforcement capabilities and said that “any content that features or promotes that content and abuse is prohibited and will be immediately removed and their accounts permanently suspended.”
Nick Pickles, Head of Global Affairs, said that content that was shared on an “outrage basis” was something that X was considering. He explained that there was a possibility that users could be sharing content in order to ‘”raise awareness” rather than for other reasons.
“One of the challenges we see is, for example, people sharing this content out of outrage because they want to raise awareness of an issue. They see something in the media,” he said. “So if there are circumstances where someone shares content but, under review, we decide the appropriate remediation is to remove the content but not the user.”
Pickles argued that since April, they have suspended over two million accounts for such behavior—whether they post or engage with the harmful content. He insisted that after Musk took the reins, they have been tough on accounts and users who do so.
Labor chair senator Helen Polley responded to Pickles’ statement by saying, “There is no excuse, whether you’re posting something through outrage, which to me just is not logical, that your account should not be permanently suspended. You can see why we don’t have a lot of faith and trust in what you’re telling us here today.” That’s pretty much been the consensus on Twitter since Musk took over, and it doesn’t look like that’s changing any time soon.
(featured image: Chesnot/Getty Images)
