Austin, Texas, is poised to become a burgeoning tech hub once again, with Elon Musk’s company, X, making significant moves in the area.

X has revealed its intention to hire 100 full-time employees for a forthcoming content moderation center in Austin, according to Joe Benarroch, the company’s head of business operations, as reported by Bloomberg.

Combating issues

While an exact opening date for the new center remains undisclosed, it is clear that the moderators’ primary focus will be combating issues such as child sexual exploitation and enforcing X’s guidelines on hate speech.

Joe Benarroch emphasized the importance of these investments, stating, “X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it’s important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content.”

X mandates that its users must be at least 13 years old, and less than 1% of its daily users fall within the 13 to 17 age group, according to information provided by the company to Bloomberg.

Content moderation

Elon Musk has faced criticism regarding his approach to content moderation since taking control of X in October 2022.

Upon assuming leadership, he swiftly removed hundreds of content moderators and team members, a move that raised concerns among advertisers about the platform’s potential for increased hate speech.

Prior to his takeover, Musk had identified as a “free speech absolutist” and criticized the platform for not adhering to what he deemed to be free speech principles, which he argued “fundamentally undermines democracy.”