Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 06:46 pm
A tech industry counter-terrorism organization called the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism – or GIFCT for short – has raised concerns over content posted by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The GIFCT is worried about X’s role on its board given the perceived undermining of the group’s credibility by the platform.
CST Issues Raised
According to The Sunday Times, researchers of the Community Security Trust-a UK charity that works to combat extremism and antisemitism-managed the amazingly easy task of finding propaganda videos from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on X in as little as 10 minutes. This discovery has increased the concerns of GIFCT over how effective the platform really is in its work of countering extremist content.
Criticism Of Changes Made Recently On X
The independent advisory committee of the GIFCT expressed concern about the gradual de-prioritization of online trust and safety in its annual report for 2023. It adversely criticized X’s latest decision made by Elon Musk to restore banned extremists, sell verification marks to anyone, and cut down the content moderation team. All these reasons drastically diminished X’s capability to deal effectively with extremist content.
Lack of Finance and Commitment
It was founded in 2017 to counter online extremism, and X was a founding member. However, the organization said X is now failing in its financial obligation to the GIFCT. The act continues to manifest concerns about X’s commitment to counter-terrorism and overall role in managing online extremism.
Summary
Concerns by the GIFCT mirror wider fears over the ability of X to police extremist content and its overall role in counter-terrorism. As scrutiny has increased over its moderation policies and financial commitments, so too has the debate over how effective it is at managing extremist content.
