Under Musk’s new management, Twitter said that its November suspensions for child sexual exploitation content had risen, but internal records show the company has few employees left working on « Trust and Safety. »
Less than a month after taking control of Twitter, Elon Musk said addressing child sexual exploitation content on the social media platform was « Priority #1. »
But there is little evidence that the company is taking more aggressive action under his management or putting more resources toward the platform’s long-running problem with child sexual exploitation content, according to interviews with four former employees, one current employee, internal company records and interviews with people who work to stop child abuse content online.
Meanwhile, Musk has turned the topic of online safety into part of a larger effort to disparage Twitter’s previous leaders and portray his ownership of the company as part of a sociopolitical battle against « the woke mind virus, » as he calls center-left to far-left ideals. That shift comes as he has further embraced the kind of far-right online rhetoric that often also includes false claims of child sex abuse.
« It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years! » Musk tweeted Friday in response to a resignation letter from a member of the company’s Trust and Safety Council who worked on child abuse issues.
« This is false, » former CEO Jack Dorsey responded.
Under Musk’s new management, Twitter said that its November account suspensions for child sexual exploitation content were higher than in any other month of 2022 thanks to new partnerships with unnamed organizations and new « detection and enforcement methods » the company did not describe.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company.
While the personnel count is still shifting at Twitter, internal records obtained by NBC News and CNBC indicate that as of early December, approximately 25 employees held titles related to « Trust and Safety » out of roughly a total of 1,600 employees still at the company. The total includes more than 100 people who Musk has authorized to work at Twitter but who work at his other companies, Tesla, SpaceX and The Boring Co., along with assorted investors and advisers.
One former Twitter employee who worked on child safety said that they know of a « handful » of people at the company still working on the issue but that most or all of the product managers and engineers who were on the team are no longer there. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation for discussing the company.
Twitter headcount had ballooned to more than 7,500 employees by the end of 2021. Even if Musk had not taken over the business, layoffs were likely, former employees said.
Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.
Under Musk’s management, the company has also pulled back on some external commitments with child safety groups.
For example, Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council on Monday, which included 12 groups that advised the company on its efforts to address child sexual exploitation.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the organization tasked by the U.
