Musk’s X is giving terrorism a free pass

A Good Law Project investigation has revealed that Elon Musk’s X is giving terrorism a free pass, with the social media platform taking down just 7% of posts and accounts from terrorists and terrorist groups.

Last year we challenged X over posts that are illegal, because they incite racial or religious hatred. And with the pressure mounting on Musk over deepfakes, in January he claimed that the platform takes action against illegal content “by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary”.

But most of the horrific posts we reported to the platform are still online. And our investigation into posts promoting terrorism and inciting violence tells a much darker story.

In December, we told X about 120 accounts and posts from designated terrorist organisations and known terrorists. But the platform only took down eight. We teamed up with Hope not Hate in February to report 35 more posts encouraging extreme violence. But the site only moderated four.

Under the Online Safety Act, social media platforms have to remove illegal content “swiftly”. X is clearly failing in this duty, making the site a hellscape filled with illegality.

This surge in illegal material is no accident. Since Musk’s takeover, he sacked content moderators and ripped out safety features that once kept the worst of the online world in check.

In January, Ofcom launched an investigation into X over sexualised imagery made using the AI tool Grok. But the problem goes far wider than deepfakes. X isn’t kicking known terrorists off the site, and is failing to protect its users or uphold the law. So we’ve written to Ofcom, to force the UK’s media regulator to launch a full investigation into all the illegal posts on X.

No company is above the law, not even X. We’ll be keeping an eye on Ofcom, to make sure they hold X to account. 

• X is not above the law. Fight back.