WASHINGTON: A gaggle of 27 US lawmakers, all Democrats, wrote to X proprietor Elon Musk on Tuesday (Nov 21) to specific concern the platform gave the impression to be cashing in on premium accounts that glorified violence in opposition to Israelis.
Within the letter to Musk and X chief govt Linda Yaccarino, the lawmakers famous reviews from nonprofit organizations that confirmed folks with X Premium accounts “glorifying barbaric acts of violence in opposition to Israelis”.
The letter is the newest combat between Musk, who purchased Twitter and renamed it X, and people who have advocated for higher content material moderation. X sued the watchdog group Media Matters on Monday, alleging it defamed the platform after it printed a report that mentioned adverts for main manufacturers had appeared subsequent to posts touting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi occasion.
“These reviews demonstrated that X is cashing in on the unfold of this grotesque and dangerous propaganda by means of account subscription charges and advert income,” the lawmakers wrote, including that a lot of the offensive content material remained reside regardless of being flagged by researchers.
X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The lawmakers mentioned X profited from the posts each from subscription charges in addition to adverts displayed in replies to each Premium and common posts.
“X has financially benefited from the unfold of demonstrably false and deceptive content material as nicely,” the lawmakers wrote.
X’s US advert income has declined a minimum of 55 per cent year-over-year every month since Musk’s takeover. Advertisers have left the platform since Musk purchased it for US$44 billion in October 2022 due to a few of Musk’s controversial posts and layoffs of workers who labored to reasonable content material.
The lawmakers additionally famous that the US had designated Hamas as a terrorist group in 1997, which signifies that it was illegal to knowingly present materials assist or assets to the group.
“There isn’t any ambiguity about whether or not violent movies generated by the group qualify below these insurance policies. These are movies that carry official Hamas branding and iconography,” the lawmakers wrote.
