WORLD ROUNDUPElon Musk’s X Faces Axe from Anti-Terror Group | How a Finnish Neo-Nazi Shared Arson Manual Before U.K. Riots, and more
· Elon Musk’s X Faces Axe from Anti-Terror Group Over Extremist Content
The tech industry is in turmoil over Musk’s content moderation policies as it emerges X ‘has become the top platform for hosting Hamas videos’
· Forget NATO Membership for Ukraine; Instead Trade It for Ukrainian Sovereignty
Even if Ukraine were able to join NATO, it would not get a reliable shield
· MI5 Could Scrutinize Tommy Robinson Funding and Checks ‘May Extend to Farage’
Security service will study travel, contacts and monetary transfers to work out if Russia has interfered, according to the former MI6 officer Christopher Steele
· Exposed: How a Finnish Neo-Nazi Shared Arson Manual Before Riots
The unnamed man also urged followers to file false police reports, raising concerns over social media’s role in spreading extremist content
· Tim Walz Has Always Been Consistent on China
Local newspapers reveal what the vice presidential candidate thought long before he came into the national spotlight
Elon Musk’s X Faces Axe from Anti-Terror Group Over Extremist Content (Emma Yeomans, The Times)
Elon Musk has thrown the tech industry’s main anti-terror organization into turmoil amid claims X has become the top platform for hosting Hamas videos, The Times has learnt.
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) is a coalition that seeks to remove terror content from tech platforms. Its members include Google, X, Meta and Microsoft.
Twitter — X’s former name — was a founding member and the company is also on the board of the international body. However, since Musk took over X and reduced content moderation, the company’s continued membership of GIFCT has led to internal unrest.
Musk has let banned extremists back on to X, allowed anyone to pay for a verification mark and sacked a large part of its content moderation team. This was part of the billionaire’s strategy of turning X into a “free speech” platform that has seen him clash with the prime minister over the government’s response to the riots.
That continued this weekend with Musk posting critical tweets about the prosecution of those who incited violence on social media.
X is now the easiest platform to find Hamas videos, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that combats extremism and antisemitism.
Members of GIFCT believe that X’s continued membership and position on the board is undermining the organization’s credibility, The Times has learnt.
Its independent advisory committee, which the Home Office sits on, said in its last annual report that it had “become increasingly concerned by significant reductions in online trust and safety capabilities for certain platforms and a perceived decrease in the priority of the issue, impacting companies’ ability to moderate extremist content online”. GIFCT sources said this statement was meant to refer to X.
Forget NATO Membership for Ukraine; Instead Trade It for Ukrainian Sovereignty (Raphael J Piliero, The Strategist)
Recent calls for Ukraine to join NATO are unrealistic at best and unwise at worst. Arguments advanced typically rely on a series of myths about membership: that NATO membership for Ukraine could plausibly end the war, that it would sustainably keep the peace, and that support for it is a realistic possibility. (Cont.)
