Anti-terror tech group worried Musk’s X membership threatens its credibility, The Sunday Times reports

(Reuters) – A tech industry counter-terrorism organisation is concerned over content posted on Elon Musk’s X by Palestinian militant group Hamas and is worried about the social media platform’s membership on its board, The Sunday Times reported.

Members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) believe the group’s credibility is undermined by X’s membership and position on its board, according to The Sunday Times. The GIFCT also includes major social media groups Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Alphabet’s YouTube.

X Corp and the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Sunday Times said that X, formally known as Twitter, is now the easiest social media platform to find Hamas videos, citing the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that combats extremism and antisemitism.

It said within 10 minutes CST researchers were able to find on X propaganda videos from UK government proscribed terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

According to The Sunday Times a statement in the GIFCT’s independent advisory committee annual 2023 report expressing concern over online trust and safety was directed at X.

The advisory body said it had become “increasingly concerned by significant reductions in online trust and safety capabilities for certain platforms, and a perceived decrease in the priority of the issue, negatively impacting companies’ ability to moderate extremist content online”.

The Sunday Times said Musk had let banned extremists back on to X, allowed anyone to pay for a verification mark and sacked a large part of its content moderation team, as part of the billionaire’s strategy of turning X into a “free speech” platform.

The GIFCT was created in 2017 under pressure from U.S. and European governments. The Sunday Times said X, a founding member of the organisation, was now failing to make its full financial contribution to the anti-organisation.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Michael Perry)