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During today ’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearingfocused on small fry ’ on-line safety , X CEO Linda Yaccarino downplay the societal web ’s reach among younger users , when she noted that less than 1 % of the app ’s U.S. user were teens ages 13 through 17 . The executive put that number in linguistic context by also share that there were 90 million X user in the U.S. — a free fall from its reported95.4 million estimated usersas of January 2023 , according to information from Statista .
When Elon Musk acquired Twitter , which has since rebranded as X , the U.S. was itslargestmarket , out front of Japan , India , Brazil and others . Speaking at an event last fall , Musk claim the internet overallhad mature to 550 million monthly alive substance abuser , though it was n’t clear if his calculation included phony account , like bot and spammers .
Though Musk had n’t breach down X usage by food market , at the time , Yaccarino last calendar month indicated that X ’s drug user base overall was growing , note that as of December 7 , 2023,more than 10 million people had already signed up for X during the calendar month .
But her figures shared with the U.S. Senate today suggest that X may be face a tenuous year - over - year downslope in the U.S. , assuming the 2023 market estimation were accurate . ( Statista noted they were based on addressable ad hearing and were provided byDataReportal . ) A decline would align with market expectations , asa Pew Research studypublished in July 2023 found that a stern of Twitter users said they were unlikely to be on the web site in a year ’s time . Though Twitter , now X , hasremained stickier than first intellection , it has been facing a number of young competitors , including the decentralised net Mastodon , Bluesky and Instagram Threads , among others . Third - political party data also indicated that X usage had dropped during Musk ’s first yr of ownership , Axios reportedin October .
Despite the fact that X has come under blast for conk out to take fair to middling measures to block CSAM ( tiddler sex activity insult material ) on its platform in markets include theEUandAustralia , hasbeen sued by CSAM victimsandlast yr unblocked the accountof a exploiter who had posted CSAM imagination , the company for the most part get out deep query about its plans to battle CSAM during today ’s auditory modality . The lawmakers also did n’t reference the recentTaylor Swift deepfake porn debacle , even though thenews had strive the White House .
In addition to minimise X ’s reach among young people , Yaccarino also distanced the company from its precursor , Twitter , by calling X “ a 14 - month - older company ” that has “ reprioritized shaver protection and refuge measure . ” She added that X has “ just begun to talk about and discuss how we can enhance those [ measure ] with paternal control . ”
Timed alongside the hearing , the companyshared that it suspended12.4 million user business relationship for violating its CSE ( child sexual exploitation ) insurance in 2023 , up from the 2.3 million report move out by Twitter in 2022 . It also sent 850,000 reports to NCMEC ( National Center for Missing & Exploited Children ) , eight times more than before Musk ’s acquisition .
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Those figures , of course , can be see in unlike ways — either that X has increased enforcement , as it require people to conceive , or that CSAM - bear on activity itself has increase on X , and an gain in the number of reports has followed .
Also during the hearing , Yaccarino answered a question about how many contented moderators were on stave by enunciate that X had 2,300 people “ all over the world . ” That ’s more than the number of X employees . ( After Musk ’s acquisition,80 % of its workforce of 7,500was laid off or fall by the wayside , admit most of the trust and safety team.)X recently saidthat it was be after to build up back up its trust and safety team by hiring 100 full - time moderator in Austin , Texas .
In an email response , a repp for X sound out it does have 2,300 masses , as Yaccarino say , but they are a combination of full - time employees and full - metre contractors .
Ahead of congressional hearing on child guard , ex annunciate plans to hire 100 moderator in Austin
