According to experts, Elon Musk's X disabled a tool that allows users to report election falsehoods. According to reset. Tech Australia, the feature has been removed in recent weeks, except the European Union. The action raised concerns ahead of Australia's landmark referendum on Aboriginal rights, as well as the 2024 US presidential election.
According to Australian officials, the spread of election disinformation is the largest ever. The technology, which is available in the United States, Australia and South Korea from 2021, was expanded to other countries last year. Reset. Tech Australia described the action in the letter as “extremely concerning” and noted that Australia is prepared to hold a referendum next month.
“There now appears to be no channel for reporting election disinformation discovered on the Internet.” “There now appears to be no channel to report election disinformation when you discover it on your platform,” the organization said.
Users can still report posts they believe are abusive, offensive or spam. On October 14, Australia will hold its first referendum in more than a quarter of a century. This change could potentially impact voters' ability to report misinformation ahead of the 2024 US presidential election.
Australia will have a historic referendum in October.
What exactly is the Vote of Parliament referendum in Australia?
According to reset. Tech Australia, the feature is still available in the EU, where recent research found X has the highest percentage of misinformation of the six major social networks. As part of the European Commission's research, more than 6,000 unique posts on social networks from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and YouTube were evaluated. According to the study, X had the highest “discoverability ratio” of misinformation, meaning the likelihood of a user encountering misinformation. He had the lowest according to YouTube analysis.
“My message to [X] is that you have to follow the letter of the law.” “We will monitor what you do,” said EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourová after the report. In the EU, IT giants must comply with the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to protect consumers and prevent election interference.
Mr. Musk has been accused of allowing hate speech and misinformation to rise after he took over X, or Twitter as it was then called, in late 2022. Mr. Musk denied this in an interview with the BBC. He argues that the platform's “Community Notes” feature, which allows people to comment on posts to identify inaccurate or misleading information, is a better method of fact-checking.
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