An anti-terrorism organisation of the technology industry is concerned about content posted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Elon Musk’s account, as well as his being a board member of the social media platform, The Sunday Times reports.
According to The Sunday Times, members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) believe the group’s credibility has been undermined by X’s membership and position on the board. GIFCT also includes major social media groups such as Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Alphabet’s YouTube.
X Corp and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Sunday Times said X, formally known as Twitter, is now the easiest social media platform to find Hamas videos. It cited the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that combats extremism and anti-Semitism.
It said that within 10 minutes CST researchers were able to find some propaganda videos of Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, terrorist groups banned by the UK government.
According to The Sunday Times, the annual 2023 report from GIFCT’s independent advisory committee addressed X, expressing concerns over online trust and safety.
The advisory body said it was “concerned by significant reductions in online trust and safety capabilities for some platforms, and a perceived lack of prioritisation of this issue, which is negatively impacting companies’ ability to moderate extremist content online”.
The Sunday Times said Musk had let banned extremists return to X, allowed anyone to pay for a verification mark and sacked a large part of its content moderation team, all part of the billionaire’s strategy to turn X into a “free speech” platform.
GIFCT was set up in 2017 under pressure from the US and European governments. The Sunday Times said the organisation’s founding member X is now failing to make his full financial contribution to the rival organisation.
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