Elon Musk’s “free speech” app, X, will give a platform to almost anyone, and that includes the leaders of terrorist groups. Several leaders of Hezbollah, a designated terrorist group by the United States, are X Premium customers receiving paid services such as verification, boosted content, and longer posts, according to an investigation from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) on Wednesday.
X, formerly Twitter, provided premium services to accounts belonging to Hezbollah’s leaders, as well as Iran-backed militants, Houthi Rebels, and Russian state media, according to the investigation. The U.S. government has issued sanctions on several of these groups, meaning U.S. entities are not allowed to conduct business with them. Many of the accounts have blue and gold checkmarks appearing next to their names, signifying their subscription.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has over 93,000 followers and posts official press releases from the organization. The blue check mark for Nasrallah’s account seems to be removed now, along with other terrorist leaders named in the investigation. However, screenshots captured on the internet archive confirm these accounts were verified as recently as January.
Iranian state media, Press TV, was identified as having a gold check mark in the Tech Transparency Project’s investigation. Gold check marks indicate a “Verified Organization,” which cost $1,000 a month at the time of TTP’s research (now $200 a month). The account has over 300,000 followers, and while it’s not a terrorist organization, it is subject to the United States sanctions against Iran. Press TV’s verification was also removed recently.
The investigation also found ads were appearing in the replies to 19 out of 28 of the sanctioned accounts. The Dispatch, a conservative U.S. publication appeared next to Press TV’s post. The incident is reminiscent of Media Matter’s investigation into X, which found anti-semitic content appearing next to Disney, IBM, and Apple’s ads. That November report caused a flood of advertisers to leave the platform altogether, which X has still not recovered from.
Musk’s social media platform claims that several of these accounts listed “are not directly named on sanction lists,” in a statement Wednesday. X says some accounts listed by the Tech Transparency Project “may have visible check marks without receiving any services that would be subject to sanctions.”
X may be violating its own terms of service by platforming terrorist leaders, which state that someone cannot use a paid service if they have economic sanctions levied against them. People from Iran are also not allowed to buy paid services on X, according to its policies, though several Iranian groups were identified in the investigation.
Blue and gold check marks were originally supposed to add legitimacy to profiles on X, formerly Twitter. The platform says users with a check mark “benefit from increased trust from other users,” though it seems X is not thoroughly vetting who receives a verification. Checkmarks became a paid product after Elon Musk’s takeover.
Elon Musk’s X has become a free-for-all when it comes to content moderation, and it seems that terrorist leaders have slipped through the cracks. X prides itself as a free-speech advocate, but cases like this show the platform may just be letting content run wild. The social media company allegedly received payments from terrorist groups in exchange for a better platform. That seems less like free speech and more like total anarchy.
