Elon Musk could soon be summoned to the UK Parliament to explain the practices of his social media platform, X.
Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Dawn Butler said that Musk is someone the Parliament would like to question, particularly regarding the platform’s role in managing harmful content.
“It is vital <…> to formally examine the use of algorithms in pushing hateful material — and the moderation of such content — on X and other social media platforms,” Butler told the Financial Times.
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Fellow Labour MP Chi Onwurah has voiced similar concerns speaking to Politico:
The really important points here are the way algorithms of platforms promote and amplify misinformation and the spreading of racial hatred, and how the platforms’ business models rely on that.
The focus on Elon Musk’s platform came after it was accused of spreading false information that sparked anti-immigration riots in the UK. Following a tragic knife attack in Southport, which resulted in the deaths of three young girls, inaccurate reports spread on X, saying that the suspect was an asylum seeker.
Musk’s challenges aren’t limited to the UK—the Brazilian Supreme Court recently suspended X after Musk refused to appoint a legal representative in the country. The issues in Brazil were related to the platform’s role in spreading misinformation tied to former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Overall, the situation of X in both the UK and Brazil showcases that regulators seek to hold social media companies accountable for the content shared on their platforms.
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches the most important industry events and interprets how they affect the wider Web3 space. Her formal education in media culture & digital rhetoric allows her to employ a methodical approach to evaluating critical Web3 news data, including large-scale events and the wider social sentiment within the ecosystem.
Gode is a mutilingual professional, having studied in multiple universities all across Europe. This allows her to have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to analyze Web3 social sentiments spanning different cultures and languages and, in turn, develop a much deeper understanding of how the Web3 space is growing within different communities. With the rest of her team, Gode works to identify crucial crypto news patterns and provide unbiased and data-driven information.
Gode’s passions include working and communicating with people, and when she’s not researching Web3 news, she spends her time traveling and watching true crime documentaries.