Sept. 27 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s X, previously known as Twitter, has significantly reduced its global election disinformation workforce after pledging to strengthen the team for the upcoming elections next year.
According to The Information, four members of the election integrity team, including its leader, were laid off from the office in Ireland. This move, along with other cuts, will reduce the team to less than half its size in North America.
When Musk acquired Twitter, the platform had around two dozen election integrity employees worldwide.
Unnamed employees cited in the report revealed that X executives stated that having election integrity employees based in Europe was no longer necessary during a meeting with the Dublin team.
In May, Musk withdrew Twitter’s participation in the European Union’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation before rebranding the platform as X. Other major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, and Microsoft committed to abiding by the 27-country initiative to combat election misinformation.
“Obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide,” said European Commissioner Thierry Breton in a statement following Twitter’s abandonment of the code.
“Disinformation will be a legal obligation under the Digital Services Act as of Aug. 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement,” Breton added.
Despite reports of downsizing its elections-integrity team, X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino stated in an interview with the Financial Times that X plans to expand its safety and election teams across the globe.
Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in October last year, Musk has reduced the platform’s staff by approximately 80%.
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
