‘Free Speech absolutist’ X suspended over 5 million accounts in first half of 2024

Carl Deconinck

27 September 2024

The first transparency report X published since its takeover by Elon Musk shows the platform still moderates its users heavily.

The company suspended five million users, removed or labelled ten million posts, and banned 2,361 profiles, in the first six months of 2024 alone.

Yet only 0.0123 per cent of posts violated one of the platforms rules, it said.

X said it currently used “a combination of machine learning and human review” to enforce these rules.

In 2022, 460 million accounts were reportedly suspended for spam, but this separate category of offences was not included in the latest report.

Nearly two million posts containing violent content were removed, while the platform made 370,588 reports to the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Abuse and harassment were the most frequently flagged offences, accounting for 36.47 per cent of total reports, regarding 81 million posts.

Another sizeable category of offence was hateful conduct, with almost 67 million reports, nearing 30 per cent of total reports.

In the first half of the year, X sent 370,588 reports of child exploitation—as mandated by law—to the CyberTipline run by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). More than 2 million accounts actively participating in child sexual abuse media (CSAM) were suspended, said X.

For comparison , in 2023 Facebook and Instagram sent a much higher number of more than 3.7 million NCMEC Cybertip Reports for child sexual exploitation.

Of those, 3.6 million related to shared or re-shared photos and videos that contained child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Articulating its new ethos under Musk’s ownership, X said its “policies and enforcement principles are rooted in human rights,” adding its approach was based on “Freedom of Speech” instead of “Freedom of Reach.”

X, arguably, has become even more helpful towards governments under Musk.

X received more than 18,000 government requests for information in the first six months of 2024, and complied with 52 per cent of those cases.

The previous transparency report, from 2021, showed Twitter “fielded 11,460 requests” and complied with 40.2 per cent of them. This suggested the platform cooperated with governments worldwide substantially more since Musk took over.

The absolute number of government requests increased, from 11,460 to 18,000, and the platform was also complying with a higher percentage of those requests (from 40.2 per cent to 52 per cent).

The report also categorised X’s content moderation efforts, detailing its actions across safeguarding children, combating harassment, preventing self-harm, removing non-consensual intimate imagery, and addressing illegal services.

Before Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover, X published these reports every six months. More recently, one had not appeared between 2021 and 2024.

Fundamental labels and categories did not change, with removals, flagged content, and government requests for information still the principal measuring sticks of the platform’s transparency efforts.

But the current report was substantially shorter than previous ones. With all charts and tables included, it still only consisted of 15 pages compared to the previous report’s 50.

X’s new willingness to obey governments made a sharp contrast with Musk’s initial promises when he bought the platform, when he argued governments systematically bullied social media and tech leaders.