X Boosts Content Moderation Teams as Taylor Swift Deep Fakes Go Viral on Platform

Social media platform X is hiring 100 content moderators to police child abuse content.

“At X, we have zero tolerance for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), and we are determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors,” the company formerly known as Twitter wrote on its blog Friday (Jan. 26). “In 2023, we made clear that our top priority was tackling CSE online.”

The post says that although X is not a platform of choice for minors — users ages 13 to 17 make up less than 1% of its daily users in the U.S. — the company has made it harder for criminals to share or engage with CSE material, while making it easier for users to report it.

While the blog post does not give an exact figure for the number of employees X is hiring for its Trust and Safety center in Austin, Texas, a report by Reuters on Saturday (Jan. 27) says it will be 100 workers, citing Joe Benarroch, X’s head of business operations.

The news came the same weekend that X was forced to block searches for “Taylor Swift” after sexually explicit, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated images of the singer circulated on the site.

The deep fakes caught the attention of the Biden administration, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre telling reporters the White House was “alarmed” by the incident.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS last week used X’s recent announcement of a new passkey feature to explore consumer interest in an all-in-one everyday app.

Findings from a joint PYMNTS Intelligence-PayPal study shows that close to 100 million American and Australian consumers are interested in using that sort of app, with one-third of all U.S. consumers indicating a strong desire for this solution.

“However, a significant barrier inhibits their widespread adoption among consumers, such as concerns about data security,” that report said. “In fact, most Americans feel uneasy about the security offered by everyday apps, making it the top reason for not embracing this tool.”

Inside this group of consumers focused on shopping-related activities, the figure climbs even more, with 67% of Americans feeling heightened concern. This further underlines perceived data security concerns as the key barrier hindering the adoption of all-in-one apps.