SAN FRANCISCO: Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, will open a new office in Texas with a focus on fighting content linked to child abuse, the company said on Sunday.
Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, said that the initial goal of the “Trust and Safety center of excellence” will recruit one hundred content moderators, focusing on weeding out child exploitation content and other violations of the platform’s rules, according to AFP.
Benarroch said that it is imperative that they make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using their platform for any engagement or distribution of such kind of content.
The company purchased by Elon Musk at the end of 2022 said in a blog post on Friday that it was determined to make X unwelcoming for actors who seek to exploit children.
Elon Musk’s X strengthens policies
It said that the company has strengthened its policies and enforcement to tackle such content. He said, “We are now taking measures on users that distribute this content and also taking immediate action on the networks of users who engage with this horrible content”.
Benarroch said that children under thirteen cannot open accounts on X, while young users aged thirteen to seventeen automatically default to a private setting, and cannot be targeted by advertisers.
X’s announcement comes ahead of a hearing in the United States’ Senate on Wednesday about “Online Child Exploitation Crisis.”
Top executives from Snap, TikTok, Meta, Discord and X will testify in front of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. X will be represented by CEO Linda Yaccarino.
Linda Yaccarino was in Washington last week to meet with elected officials from both parties on topics including content moderation, disinformation, child protection, and artificial intelligence.
Benarroch said that they wanted to help Senators and staff understand how X is a new firm and what has evolved over the past fourteen months. He said that X currently has more than two thousand content moderators, both full-time employees and contractors.
