Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly called Twitter, has disabled a feature that allowed users to report misinformation about elections, according to a research organization on Wednesday. This move has raised fresh concerns about the spread of false claims ahead of major U.S. and Australian elections.
After introducing a feature in 2022 for users to report a post they considered misleading about politics, X in the past week removed the “politics” category from its drop-down menu in every jurisdiction but the European Union, said the researcher Reset. Tech Australia.
Users could still report posts to X globally for a host of other complaints such as promoting violence or hate speech, the researcher added. Removing a way for people to report suspected political misinformation may limit intervention at a time when social media platforms are under pressure to curtail falsehoods about electoral integrity, which have grown rapidly in recent years.
It comes less than three weeks before Australia holds a referendum, its first in a quarter century, on whether to change the constitution to establish an Indigenous advisory body to parliament and 14 months before a U.S. presidential election.
“It would be helpful to understand why X have seemingly gone backwards on their commitments to mitigating the kind of serious misinformation that has translated into real political instability in the US, especially on the eve of the ‘bumper year’ of elections globally,” said Alice Dawkins, executive director of Reset.Tech Australia.
In a letter to X’s managing director for Australia, Angus Keene, Reset. Tech Australia said the change may leave content that violates X’s own policy banning electoral misinformation online without an appropriate review process.
“It is extremely concerning that Australians would lose the ability to report serious misinformation weeks away from a major referendum,” said the letter which was published online.
