Elon Musk‘S X plans to hire 100 full-time workers for a new content moderation headquarters in Austin, Joe BenarrochX’s head of business operations told Bloomberg on Saturday.
This development is part of a larger trend of tech expansion in Austin, further fueled by Musk’s Tesla Inc.which already has a sizeable workforce in its local gigafactory.
While the center’s opening date is unclear, its primary focus will be to address content related to child sexual exploitation and enforce X’s policies against hate speech.
Benarroch spoke about the importance of this initiative, saying, “X does not have a child-focused business segment, but we must make these investments to continue to prevent infringers 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 aged between 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 failing to adhere 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 requires 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 artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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