Linda Yaccarino Responds To Europe’s Israel-Hamas Conflict Disinformation Warning; Says X Has Taken Action On “Tens Of Thousands Of Pieces Of Content”
12.10.2023 - 11:47
/ deadline.com
X CEO Linda Yaccarino has responded to European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton’s letter to her boss Elon Musk calling on him to act swiftly to remove posts from the platform spreading disinformation around the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Breton, who as E.U. Commissioner for the Internal Market has oversight on digital affairs in the 27-country political and economic bloc, had given Musk 24 hours to clean up the site in a letter posted on X on Tuesday at 7pm CET.
Failure to comply, he warned, would lead to sanctions under the rules of the E.U.’s Digital Services Act.
In a letter, dated October 11 but made public on X’s Global Government Affairs handle early on Thursday, October 12, in Europe, Yaccarino said the platform had “redistributed resources and refocused internal teams” to deal with the issue.
“In accordance with your request to respond in 24 hours, this a high-level summary of our work, noting we are actively working to address the operational needs of this fast-moving and evolving conflict,” she wrote.
“X is committed to serving the public conversation, especially in critical moments like this and understands the importance of addressing any illegal content that may be disseminated through the platform. There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts,” she continued.
Yaccarino said that the platform had taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since Saturday’s terror attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis.
She added that the platform’s crowd-sourced fact-checking and moderation feature Community Notes had also contributed