Elon Musk's X To Establish Content Moderation Team In Texas

Elon Musk's X plans to employ 100 full-time workers for a new content moderation headquarters in Austin, Joe Benarroch, the head of business operations at X, told Bloomberg on Saturday. 

This development is part of a broader trend of tech expansion in Austin, further fueled by Musk's Tesla Inc., which already has a substantial workforce at its local gigafactory. 

While the opening date of the center remains unclear, its primary focus will be on tackling content related to child sexual exploitation and enforcing X's policies against hate speech.

Benarroch told the outlet about the importance of this initiative, stating, "X does not have a line of business focused on children, but we must make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content." 

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According to Bloomberg, X requires its users to be at least 13 years old, with less than 1% of its daily users falling between the ages of 13 and 17.

Since Musk took control of X in October 2022, the platform has faced criticism for its approach to trust and safety operations, mainly after Musk decided to reduce the number of content moderators and employees on the team.

Before acquiring what was then known as Twitter, Musk had expressed his views as a "free speech absolutist" and criticized the platform for not adhering to free speech principles.

The establishment of the new content moderation center in Austin also comes after Musk's opposition to a California law regulating online content moderation, which mandates social media companies to disclose their content moderation practices in annual reports.

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This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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