Musk's X disabled feature for reporting electoral misinformation -
researcher
Send a link to a friend
[September 27, 2023]
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Elon Musk's X, formerly called Twitter, disabled a
feature that let users report misinformation about elections, a research
organization said on Wednesday, throwing fresh concern about false
claims spreading just before major U.S. and Australian votes.
After introducing a feature in 2022 for users to report a post they
considered misleading about politics, X in the past week removed the
"politics" category from its drop-down menu in every jurisdiction but
the European Union, said the researcher Reset.Tech Australia.
Users could still report posts to X globally for a host of other
complaints such as promoting violence or hate speech, the researcher
added.
X was not immediately available for comment.
Removing a way for people to report suspected political misinformation
may limit intervention at a time when social media platforms are under
pressure to curtail falsehoods about electoral integrity, which have
grown rapidly in recent years.
It comes less than three weeks before Australia holds a referendum, its
first in a quarter century, on whether to change the constitution to
establish an Indigenous advisory body to parliament and 14 months before
a U.S. presidential election.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/27/images/ads/current/merealty_sda_FOOTBALL_2023.png)
"It would be helpful to understand why X have seemingly gone backwards
on their commitments to mitigating the kind of serious misinformation
that has translated into real political instability in the US,
especially on the eve of the 'bumper year' of elections globally," said
Alice Dawkins, executive director of Reset.Tech Australia.
In a letter to X's managing director for Australia, Angus Keene,
Reset.Tech Australia said the change may leave content that violates X's
own policy banning electoral misinformation online without an
appropriate review process.
"It is extremely concerning that Australians would lose the ability to
report serious misinformation weeks away from a major referendum," said
the letter which was published online.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/092723PIX/news_i14.jpg)
'X' logo is seen on the top of the headquarters of the messaging
platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco,
California, U.S., July 30, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/27/images/ads/current/llm_lda_FOOTBALL_2023.png)
Since billionaire Musk took Twitter, as it was then known, private
in late 2022, the company, which cut most of its workforce, has been
accused of allowing the proliferation of antisemitism, hate speech
and misinformation.
As previously reported by Reuters, Reset.Tech Australia found X
failed to remove or label a single post containing misinformation
about the Australian referendum over a three-week period, including
after it was reported using the now-disabled feature.
Musk has said X's "Community Notes" feature, which allows users to
comment on posts to flag false or misleading content, is a better
way of fact checking. But those notes are only made public when they
are rated as helpful by a range of contributors with varying points
of view, according to X's website.
Australia's internet safety regulator wrote to X in June demanding
an explanation for an explosion in hate speech on the platform,
noting it had reinstated some 62,000 high profile accounts of
individuals who espouse Nazi rhetoric.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), which will oversee the
Oct. 14 referendum, has said the spread of electoral misinformation
is the worst it has seen.
The commission said it was still able to report posts containing
political misinformation directly to X, even after the feature was
disabled. For other users, the AEC was "available for people to ask
questions or seek information".
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Sonali Paul)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/27/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png) |