CALIFORNIA: Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has appointed new managers to make the platform feel safer for users and more attractive to advertisers.
Hate speech is also a business problem for X. The service is dependent on advertising revenue, and companies do not want their brands to appear alongside posts with incitements to violence or anti-Semitic slogans.
As head of safety, Kylie McRoberts is to deal with the problem of hate speech and other extremist content. In addition, Yale Cohen is to make the service more attractive for companies, X announced on Tuesday. Cohen comes from the advertising industry.
Since Musk took over Twitter in the autumn of 2022, advertising revenue has halved. The tech billionaire promised radical freedom of speech at X within the scope of what is legally permitted.
He says 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 adverts for 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 cancelled 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. – dpa
