San Francisco:

Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, will open a moderation office in Texas with an emphasis on fighting content related to child sexual abuse, the company said.

The initial goal of the “Trust and Safety Center of Excellence” in Austin will be to recruit 100 content moderators who will focus on eliminating child sexual exploitation (CSE) content and other violations of the platform’s rules, said Benaroch, vice president of business operations. Are prominent. Ax told AFP on Saturday.

“X does not have a children-focused business, but it is important that we make these investments to prevent criminals from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content,” Benaroch said in an email. “

The company, which will be bought by Elon Musk in late 2022, said in a blog post on Friday that it is “determined to make X inaccessible to actors who seek to exploit minors.”

“X has strengthened its policies and enforcement to tackle CSE. We are now taking action against the users who distribute this content and are also taking immediate action against the networks of users who are exposed to this terrible content.” Are connected.”

Benaroch noted that children under 13 cannot create an account on X, while youth users aged 13 to 17 automatically default to a private setting, and cannot be targeted by advertisers. .

Ax’s announcement comes ahead of a US Senate hearing on Wednesday titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”

Top executives from Meta, Snap, TikTok, Discord and X will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. X will be represented by CEO Linda Yaccarino.

She was in Washington last week to meet with elected officials from both parties on topics including child protection, content moderation, disinformation and artificial intelligence.

“We wanted to help senators/staff understand how Which has been replaced by X,” said Benaroch.

X currently has more than 2,000 content moderators, he said, including both full-time employees and contractors.

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” vowed to lift the ban on Twitter after purchasing the platform. Many rules were lifted or relaxed, with many banned celebrities able to return.

Last month, the European Union announced “formal infringement proceedings” against Ax under a law designed to combat disinformation and hatred after identifying posts suspiciously related to Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel.

It was the first action taken against a major online platform since Brussels imposed the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping piece of EU law that strengthens online companies’ responsibility for content moderation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)