X just ditched a tool that enabled users to flag fake news about elections, think tank says
- Elon Musk's X appears to have removed a feature letting users report electoral misinformation.
- This is according to research from the Australian think tank Reset Australia.
Elon Musk's X — formerly known as Twitter — appears to have removed a feature that allows users to report misinformation about elections, according to research from a major Australian think tank.
Reset Australia wrote an open letter to Angus Keene — X's managing director in Australia and New Zealand — to raise concerns about the fact that "there now appears to be no channel to report electoral misinformation when discovered on your platform," just weeks before a major Australian referendum to give indigenous people more rights. It could also impact users' ability to report fake electoral news in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential elections.
The feature, which was first introduced in 2021, is no longer available to users in the US, Australia, Brazil, and Spain, according to tests run by TechCrunch. It is still available in the European Union, however, per Reuters.
The letter points out that reporting categories on the social media platform no longer have the option to report electoral misinformation.
It says: "Users are offered inappropriate categories such as hate speech, abuse, spam, imitation etc. Previously Australian users could select 'It's misleading' about 'Politics' category. This may leave violative content subject to an inappropriate review process and not labelled or removed in compliance with your policies."
Insider contacted X for comment but didn't immediately hear back.
The news comes as The Information reported Wednesday that X had fired half of its election integrity team. Elon Musk later wrote on X that the team was "gone."
But X's CEO Linda Yaccarino denied that the company is disassembling the team, saying at a conference later that day that "it's an issue we take very seriously," per The Verge.
She added: "And contrary to the comments that were made, there is a robust and growing team at X that is wrapping their arms around election integrity."
A recent study by the European Commission found that X had the highest proportion of Russian disinformation on its site versus other major social networks.