X to Establish Content Moderation Headquarters in Austin

X is reportedly planning to create a "Trust and Safety center of excellence" in Austin, Texas to moderate the content created on the platform.

The team will be tasked to enforce content and safety rules in the platform after a series of moderation concerns.

X Plans for Resolving Content Moderation Issues

According to Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, the company will hire 100 full-time content moderators to be assigned to the new location. More specifically, the team will focus on working against posts related to child sexual exploitation while enforcing other social media rules.

"X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it's important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content," Benarroch stated.

Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, now known as X, the social media platform has been plagued with hate speech, violent posts, misinformation, and exploitation. It all started after Musk revised some of the policies to bring "free speech" to the service.

X Faces Probe on Child Safety Online

On January 31, CEOs from big tech companies will be testifying before the U.S. Senate hearing on online child exploitation. X CEO Y Linda Yaccarino will be joined by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Discord CEO Jason Citron, and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.

During the hearing, the CEOs will be given a chance to "testify about their failure to protect children online." Previously, it was reported that only Zuckerberg and Chew voluntarily agreed to attend but other CEOs were issued subpoenas after refusing to negotiate.

"They finally are being forced to acknowledge their failures when it comes to protecting kids. Now that all five companies are cooperating, we look forward to hearing from their CEOs. Parents and kids demand action," Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated in a joint statement.

As for X, Benarroch shared that Yaccarino has been in talks with senators from both sides and has been highlighting the company's effort to various types of problematic content.