Elon Musk’s X tells watchdog it has shed 1,000 ‘safety’ staff
- The eSafety Commission said the ‘deep cuts’ and reinstatement of banned accounts created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spread of harmful content
- Australia has spearheaded the global push to regulate social media, forcing firms to outline how they are tackling hate speech and child sexual abuse
Elon Musk’s X has shed more than 1,000 staff globally from teams responsible for stopping abusive content online, according to new figures released Thursday by Australia’s online watchdog.
Australia’s eSafety Commission said these “deep cuts” and the reinstatement of thousands of banned accounts had created a “perfect storm” for the spread of harmful content.
The regulator has in recent months zeroed in on X – formerly known as Twitter – previously saying Musk’s takeover coincided with a spike in “toxicity and hate” on the platform.
Using Australia’s groundbreaking Online Safety Act, the eSafety Commission has obtained a detailed breakdown of software engineers, content moderators and other safety staff working at X.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, said it was the first time these figures had been made public.
They showed 1,213 specialist “trust and safety staff”, including contractors, had left X since it was acquired by Musk in October 2022.