Elon Musk makes cuts to X’s election integrity team

Elon Musk, the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, said Wednesday he has made cuts to X’s election integrity team, which seeks to prevent election interference and manipulation on the platform.

Responding to reports of the cuts, Musk wrote on X, “Oh you mean the “Election Integrity” Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.” 

It was not immediately clear how many people were slashed from team, but The Information first reported four Dublin-based employees were impacted, including the team’s head, Aaron Rodericks, citing a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  

The cuts come less than a month after X said it was expanding its safety and elections team to “focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closeby monitoring the platform for emerging threats.” 

In its August announcement, the social media platform touted the enforcement of its Civic Integrity policy, which sets both safety standards and rules for election interference, unauthenticated media, and deceptive identities. 

The cuts come amid Musk’s larger efforts to pullback on some of the site’s content moderation measures. These include a limit on how many posts users can read in a day, while also reinstating previously suspended accounts like that of former President Trump. 

X has come under fire recently for reports from anti-hate-speech organizations showing the platform did not take action on numerous “extreme hate speech” posts. 

Since taking over the platform last fall, Musk has made a series of controversial choices including mass layoffs, firing top executives, and launching the Twitter Blue program, which requires users to pay a monthly subscription for a verification check. 

The reported cuts came hours ahead of the second Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif., where seven candidates will take the stage. 

When asked for a comment on the cuts, X responded with, “Busy now, please check back later.”