Watchdog: X failed to remove 98% of hateful posts amid Israel-Hamas war

Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The Center for Countering Digital Hate said on Tuesday that X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter, failed to remove 98% of hate comments and images amid the Israel-Hamas war, often breaching its own rules.

The researchers said most of the 200 post-samples that contained prohibited racist slurs, dehumanization, and hateful imagery and promoted anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian hate, or other hate speech, remained up on X.

"After an unprecedented terrorist atrocity against Jews in Israel, and the subsequent armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, hate actors have leapt at the chance to hijack social media platforms to broadcast their bigotry and mobilize real-world violence against Jews and Muslims, heaping even more pain into the world," Imran Ahmed, CCDH's CEO and founder said.

Other posts found in the sampling of emails included messages that incited violence against Muslims, Palestinians, and Jewish people; denied and diminished the Holocaust and glorified Nazis and Nazism.

The center noted the posts were reported to moderators through X's official reporting tools on Oct. 31 and were reviewed on Nov. 7 to audit the action taken.

"Despite having a full week to process the reports, researchers found that X continued to host 98% (196) of the 200 posts," CCDH said.

The watchdog said the posts have gathered 24,043,693 views and only one account responsible for the posts was suspended while two more were "locked."

It noted that 43 of the 101 accounts were "verified" by X, a paid subscription that grants posts from subscribers favorable placement in the social network's algorithm.

Ahmed on Tuesday cited Elon Musk's leadership as a reason for the failures in moderation.

"This is the inevitable result when you slash safety and moderation staff, put the Bat Signal up to welcome back previously banned hate actors, and offer increased visibility to anyone willing to pay $8 a month," he said. "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."

In August, X, which is owned by Musk sued the center, accusing it of "a scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform."

Several Congress members followed up with a letter to X, expressing concern over their lawsuit, suggesting it was trying to threaten and intimidate independent researchers looking into the effects of social media.