X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has released its first transparency report since Elon Musk assumed control of the company in 2022. The 15-page document, which covers the first half of 2024, is the first of its kind in over a year and provides a comprehensive look into the platform’s enforcement practices. This report reveals new data about content moderation and addresses concerns raised by users and advertisers over platform safety.
X publishes its first report in more than a year
X’s first transparency report presents detailed enforcement numbers between January and June of 2024. X received over 224 million user reports, resulting in the suspension of more than 5 million accounts and the removal of over 10 million posts. The report highlights that content violating the platform’s rules accounted for less than 1 percent of all posts shared. However, it emphasizes that hateful, abusive, and violent content remains a major challenge for the platform.
Among the most frequent violations, posts under the hateful conduct policy were the most common, with X taking action on 4.9 million posts. In addition, 2.6 million posts related to abuse and harassment and 2.2 million posts involving violent content were also addressed. The platform continues to face scrutiny from advertisers and civil rights groups, particularly regarding how it handles these kinds of harmful content.
The data also reflects a significant increase in enforcement numbers compared to Twitter’s last report before Musk’s takeover. In late 2021, Twitter had suspended 1.3 million accounts and actioned around 4.3 million posts, showing that the volume of flagged content and enforcement efforts has risen sharply.
Government involvement and content removal requests rise
The X transparency report also provides insight into government requests for information and content removals. X received over 18,000 requests from governments for user data, with a disclosure rate of 53%. Additionally, there were 72,703 government requests for content removal, with X taking action in 70% of cases. Notably, Japan led the world in content removal requests, submitting 46,648 such demands, followed by Turkey with 9,364.
X’s report underlines the platform’s efforts to combat child exploitation. It submitted 370,588 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the first half of 2024. The company also suspended over 2 million accounts for engaging in child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This represents a substantial increase compared to previous years. For example, in 2021, Twitter reported only 86,000 such cases to NCMEC, a number that grew steadily in subsequent years.
While X’s first transparency report signals a greater commitment to public accountability, the data alone is insufficient. Concerns persist in the tech space about the impact of Musk’s leadership on the platform’s safety and moderation efforts, especially with a growing focus on automation and machine learning in enforcing rules.