X plans to open a new office in Austin dedicated to content moderation, especially around child sexual exploitation (CSE) materials, Bloomberg reports.
The “Trust and Safety Center of Excellence” will hire 100 employees to focus on stopping the spread of CSE content and other issues like hate speech. This comes ahead of CEO Linda Yaccarino testifying before Congress about CSE this week.
X posted last week about efforts to make the platform “inhospitable” for exploiting minors. Head of Business Operations Joe Benarroch said though X doesn’t have a business around children, “it’s important we make these investments to keep stopping offenders.”
This signals a shift from Elon Musk’s first year gutting content teams in the name of “free speech.” The dedicated office appears to be an admission that more moderation is necessary, especially with pressure from Washington around child safety issues. Whether 100 employees is sufficient for a platform X’s size remains to be seen.
