Fight against hate speech

X: freedom of speech and security must coexist

Anti-Semitism and calls for violence drive away X's advertising customers.(Bild: SADI SANTOS - stock.adobe.com)

Elon Musk's Twitter successor X has found new managers to make the platform safer for users and companies. As Head of Safety, Kylie McRoberts will deal with the problem of hate speech and other extremist content. In addition, Yale Cohen will make the service more attractive for companies, as X announced on Tuesday. Cohen comes from the advertising industry.

Hate speech is also a business problem for X. The service relies on advertising revenue - and companies do not want their brands to appear alongside posts with incitements to violence or anti-Semitic slogans, for example. Since Musk took over Twitter in the fall of 2022, advertising revenue has halved. The tech billionaire promised radical freedom of speech at X within the bounds of what is permitted by law. He is focusing on severely restricting the distribution of posts with problematic content instead of removing them. Two safety officers have already left since the takeover.

A few months ago, online researchers demonstrated how advertising from well-known brands can appear alongside anti-Semitic posts. Musk countered that the examples were artificially constructed and did not correspond to everyday use. Several major advertising clients have since cut back their spending on X or have stopped using it altogether. The head of X, Linda Yaccarino, who was appointed by Musk, is trying to convince them that the platform offers a safe environment for their brands.

Musk meanwhile berated renegade advertisers savagely at an appearance a few months ago, claiming that they would be to blame if X were to fail. Musk, who is politically aligned with the American right, attacked the Disney Group and its boss Bob Iger particularly fiercely.

The X owner himself caused a scandal when he described a post with an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory as "actual truth". Musk later spoke of a mistake and misunderstanding and apologized. X emphasized on Tuesday that freedom of speech and safety must coexist on the service.