An investigation conducted by NewsGuard, an organization dedicated to monitoring misinformation, raised concerns about the spread of misinformation posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. According to the NewsGuard report, some “premium” X users, those who pay for a subscription to the social network and have the blue badge, have published content promoting conspiracy theories regarding the war between Israel and Hamas. These posts, followed by NewsGuard from November 13 to 22, totaled more than 92 million views. The investigations focused on 10 accounts with over 100,000 followers each, identified by NewsGuard as the major spreaders of fake news about the war. Veena McCoole, vice president of communications at NewsGuard, expressed concern that these posts are published with the intent to promote misleading information or hate speech, and that such content may be eligible for an advertising revenue sharing program of X.
The report also highlighted the presence of advertisements from companies such as Pizza Hut under these controversial posts. This raises questions about how X handles advertising for potentially harmful content. The situation is made worse by recent lawsuits brought by X against Media Matters, after a report showing advertising content from large companies associated with pro-Nazi messages. Similar questions arise regarding X’s revenue sharing policy. ANDlon Musk, owner of X, had previously said that posts corrected through the crowd-sourced moderation tool Community Notes would not be eligible for revenue sharing. However, the NewsGuard report shows that this policy may not be enforced consistently.
Furthermore, the NewsGuard report highlights the complexity and ambiguity of the “X User Agreement”, which sometimes seems to refer to a single document, while other times to a set of rules spread across several pages. This makes it difficult for users to fully understand what behaviors are in violation of the platform’s policies. These revelations are particularly relevant in a context where online misinformation can have real and serious impacts on society. The case of X demonstrates the importance of transparent and accountable governance of social media platformsespecially when it comes to managing potentially harmful content and its economic implications.
