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Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has agreed to strengthen measures against illegal content in the United Kingdom as regulators increase scrutiny of major tech companies, Britain’s media watchdog said Friday.
The UK regulator Ofcom said in a statement that the platform has committed to reviewing reports of suspected terrorist and hate-related content within an average of 24 hours and to taking steps to block accounts linked to banned terrorist groups operating in the country.
Ofcom said the commitments are part of its wider push to ensure major social media companies have effective systems for dealing with illegal material online.
Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s online safety director, said there was evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech continued to appear on major platforms, adding that X’s latest commitments marked progress but further action was still required.
“We have evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech is persisting on some of the largest social media sites,” said Griffiths.
Under the agreement, X will also be required to submit quarterly reports for a year to allow regulators assess compliance and safety improvements for UK users.
Contacted by AFP, X did not immediately respond.
The regulator noted that online safety concerns have grown as antisemitic attacks in the UK heightens.
In January, Ofcom opened a probe into X over its AI chatbot Grok’s image-creation feature that has been used to produce sexualised deepfakes.
Ofcom said on Friday that its investigation into Grok remained ongoing.
