X, the Elon-Musk owned platform formerly known as Twitter, did not remove 98 percent of a sample of posts spreading hate related to the conflict in Israel and Gaza, according to a study published Tuesday by the hate-speech watchdog group Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
CCDH researchers reported 200 posts promoting hate speech, including antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate, using X’s own tools on Oct 31. A week later, 196 of the posts were still hosted on X, according to the report.
The 200 posts reported were all posted after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, and the majority directly addressed the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The posts that remained up accrued more than 24 million views collectively, according to the report.
The 200 posts were published by 101 separate X accounts. According to CCDH, only one of the accounts was suspended and two of the accounts were “locked,” which meant they were unable to post content until removing the reported posts.
Of the 101 accounts identified in the study, 43 were verified users through X’s monthly subscription platform, according to the report. Users that pay for the X monthly subscription get additional features, including a verified check mark.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO and founder of CCDH, said the report to test X’s content moderation system capacity, “reveals that hate actors appear to have free rein to post viciously antisemitic and hateful rhetoric on Elon Musk’s platform.”
Musk bought the platform last year and since then has changed policies to roll back content moderation measures and allow users to pay for verification.
“Musk has created a safe space for racists, and has sought to make a virtue of the impunity that leads them to attack, harass and threaten marginalized communities,” Ahmed said.
A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment about the report.
Amid criticism over content about the conflict on X, the company has been touting its community notes feature which allows users to add notes on posts for context and rate posts on their helpfulness.
X executive Joe Benarroch sent an email on Friday touting the use of community notes as a way to mitigate misinformation, especially during the month since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
He said the program has grown, with more than 40,000 new contributors being added to community notes in the past month, and said notes have been viewed “well over a hundred million times” to address content about the conflict.
CCDH has published other reports about X and Twitter, and faced pushback form the company over its findings.
In August, the company sued CCDH over allegations the organization improperly gained access to data. CCDH pushed back on the allegations and pledged to keep forward with its mission to hold X and other tech companies accountable.
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