Sept. 27 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, has cut more than half of its global election disinformation workforce after the social media platform promised to expand the team ahead of next year’s elections.
Four election integrity team members were cut from an office in Ireland, including the team’s leader, The Information reported Wednesday, adding that global cuts will reduce the team to fewer than half in North America.
When Musk bought Twitter last year, there were about two dozen election integrity employees worldwide.
According to the report, which cites three unnamed employees, X executives told the team in Dublin that “having election integrity employees based in Europe wasn’t necessary.”
In May, Musk dropped out of the European Union’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation before rebranding Twitter as X. Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok and Microsoft have all pledged to abide by the 27-country initiative to censor election misinformation.
“Obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a statement after Twitter abandoned the code.
“Disinformation will be a legal obligation under the Digital Services Act as of Aug. 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement,” Breton added.
Despite reports of cuts to its elections-integrity team, X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino was quoted by the Financial Times this week as saying that X planned to expand its safety and election teams around the world.
Since purchasing Twitter last October for $44 billion, Musk has cut about 80% of its staff.
