Oh wow, X actually is building a new safety center in the U.S. after all.
After announcing back in January that it was planning to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Texas, specifically focused on combating child sexual exploitation (CSE) material, X hasn’t made any other announcement on the project. And it was starting to feel like maybe it was never actually going to happen, like maybe Elon and Co. had just made it up to placate regulators.
But apparently it is moving ahead, based on this new job listing posted in the app.
As you can see, X is now staffing its new Trust and Safety facility in Texas, which will ideally see it boost its human moderation staff, with a view to improving its efforts in addressing rule-breaking content.
Which has been a contentious element of Elon Musk’s grand plan. Musk’s view is that moderation equates to censorship in most applications, and as such, he’s keen to avoid the company interfering with what people share in the app, as much as possible.
But content that breaks X’s rules is different, and data from X shows that the platform now has far fewer staff working on moderation than any other social app. And while Community Notes provides an additional barrier to some degree, X does need more moderation staff, in order to combat concerning content, and protect users, while also reassuring potential ad partners.
The establishment of a new Safety Center (just “Safety” now, because apparently “Trust and Safety” is too woke or something) in Texas could also be a precursor to a bigger move for the company, with Elon Musk recently announcing that X will move out of San Francisco, due to his dissatisfaction with local government.
Whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen, but it could be that this new safety facility is just the first element of X HQ in Elon’s home state.
Either way, it’s a significant move, shifting the company formerly known as Twitter away from Silicon Valley, which Musk himself believes is politically biased and corrupt.
As such, this could be the first step in a major change for the app.
