X/Twitter scraps feature letting users report misleading information

Critics say decision by Elon Musk-owned company is ‘extremely concerning’ ahead of Australia’s Indigenous voice to parliament referendum

Josh Taylor @joshgnosis

Tue 26 Sep 2023 23.34 EDT

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has removed the ability for people to report a tweet for containing misleading information just weeks before a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament in Australia.

Since 2021, users on X in countries including the US, Australia and South Korea had been able to flag tweets that they believed contained misleading information for review by staff at the company – separate to other processes the company has in place to report abuse or hate speech.

The feature had been available in the US, Australia and South Korea since August 2021 and was expanded to Brazil, the Philippines and Spain in early 2022, with the administration of the company at the time noting the importance of such a tool during elections. However, this tool has now been removed from those markets in the past week or two, according to digital platforms critic group Reset Australia.

In an open letter published on Wednesday, Reset Australia said it was “extremely concerning” that it was removed just weeks out from the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament and was at “a disastrous point in time for Australia’s electoral integrity” if the tool had been removed deliberately.

X was contacted for comment and, in an auto-reply, said: “Busy now. Please check back later.”

The site’s owner, Elon Musk, made pushing against censoring content on platforms a key plank in his reason for taking over Twitter.

Correspondence between the Australian Electoral Commission and X obtained by Guardian Australia last week revealed frustration within thecommission about X’s failure to act to remove posts inciting violence against its staff and promoting disinformation about the electoral process.

The AEC commissioner, Tom Rogers, said veiled threats against staff made on social media platforms had been difficult to remove regardless of which platform they were on.

A spokesperson for the AEC said the commission had its own avenue to refer content to X.

“There is an avenue that still exists for the AEC to refer content to X, and we utilise it,” the spokesperson said. “However, we have a high threshold for matters we report to social media platforms and are realistic about it.

“The AEC understands the responsiveness of the AEC on the platform is always going to be swifter and likely more effective in countering incorrect claims regarding the electoral process than the actions of platforms.”

The spokesperson said there had been a shift in responsiveness from social media platforms in the past year, not just X.

“There are matters pertaining to what we would consider inciting violence, or veiled threats, that we believe should be actioned. This sometimes occurs but has not always been the case.”

In a report to the digital platforms lobby group Digi on its compliance with the voluntary industry misinformation and disinformation code in May, Twitter pointed to its community notes feature – where users could fact check a tweet and, if enough users approved it, it was added to the tweet as additional context – as how the platform was combatting misinformation.

“We know that misleading information is complex, evolving, and sometimes cloaked behind questions or opinions,” the company said. “To ensure that people are better informed on Twitter we launched Community Notes, our approach to offering context and surfacing credible information.

“As Community Notes rapidly evolve on platform, within Twitter, and in public, this product presents a profound shift for our company and people who use our service.

“It is a priority area of development, grounded in more than a decade and half of Twitter, the platform and content moderation experiments, policies, and products. It is also grounded in ongoing research, evaluation and consultation.”

The change comes as the federal governmentfaces pressure from the opposition to scrap a draft bill that would grant the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) powers to enforce the code on the platforms.