Twitter has once again faced criticism for its handling of child sex abuse imagery after reinstating the account of a right-wing influencer who posted a redacted image of a toddler being tortured. Despite the account’s more than 500,000 followers defending it as being suspended for political messaging, Twitter owner Elon Musk acknowledged that it was specifically due to the image. Although the image was partially obscured, experts confirm that it still qualifies as illegal child sex abuse material. The person responsible for posting the image, Dominick McGee, claims he did so to draw attention to child sex trafficking. McGee is associated with QAnon, a web of baseless conspiracy theories. After buying Twitter in October, Musk reinstated banned QAnon accounts and is now rebranding the company as X, with hopes of expanding its functionality. While Musk claims to prioritize stopping the spread of child sexual exploitation material (CSAM), critics argue that problems persist and that staffing in the trust and safety department has been significantly reduced. There have been reports of Twitter letting known CSAM slip through, sometimes for weeks, without being detected. Musk’s Twitter has been quick to suspend or ban accounts in non-child abuse cases, displaying inconsistent enforcement practices. The recent controversy could harm Twitter’s ability to regain advertiser trust, especially following Musk’s leadership and content moderation views coming under scrutiny. Musk’s tweets drew attention to McGee’s account, resulting in a significant increase in followers. The former head of Twitter’s moderation and safety team criticized the company for reinstating accounts that share child sexual abuse material while claiming to have zero tolerance for it. McGee also shared the same image on Instagram, which was eventually removed by Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes 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.
