Elon Musk fired 80% of trust and safety engineers after buying Twitter and changing its name to X, while the company also fired a third of its non-engineering security team, according to a report published two days ago by eSafety, an online safety regulator in Australia.
The information comes after the Commissioner used Australia’s Online Safety Act to demand answers from X about how it keeps users safe. Elon Musk’s company said it had 279 security-focused engineers worldwide before the takeover in October 2022. That number dropped to 55 by the end of May 2023.
These cuts have had an impact, eSafety believes and claims that users have reported that response times to offensive tweets have slowed by 20% since Mask’s download. The company’s attempts to deal with abusive direct messages have slowed by 70%, according to an Australian government agency.
X informed the Commissioner that after disbanding his Trust and Safety Council, which provided external advice to the company, he did not seek to form a body to replace it. X also confirmed to the agency that he did not have an employee who exclusively dealt with issues of malicious behavior worldwide, either before or after Musk’s takeover.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who worked on security for Twitter from 2014 to 2016, said that her team decided to investigate X because of a surge in reports of online hate following Musk’s arrival. It was also upsetting that accounts that had previously been flagged for violating rules related to violent and abusive behavior were allowed to return.
It was previously reported in the media that Twitter’s security team was drastically reduced after the takeover and that this social media continues to have problems with child abuse, despite the owner’s previous promises to get rid of illegal content. However, this is the first time that data has shown the extent of the cuts.
Immediately afterward, in December, eSafety announced that it was taking civil action against X for failing to provide information in response to a request for details on how the company combats online child abuse.
X had previously refused to pay a fine of 610.500 Australian dollars (409.000 dollars) for withholding information. If the court rules in favor of the government, it could impose a significantly higher sentence on X, Grant said.
