{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressmen-dan-goldman-jamie-raskin-demand-elon-musk-x-leadership-enforce", "Congressmen Dan Goldman, Jamie Raskin Demand Elon Musk, X Leadership Enforce Platform Guidelines and Cease Profiting Off Surging Misinformation, Antisemitic and Violent Content", "2023-11-21", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "House", "NY", "Daniel S. Goldman", "G000599", "goldman.house.gov", "goldman", "https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Read the Letter Here\n\nWashington, DC \u2013 Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) today wrote a letter to \u2018X\u2019 (formerly Twitter) owner, Elon Musk, and Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino demanding that X address failures in applying its anti-misinformation and anti-violence policies to Hamas terrorist propaganda and that X cease profiting off this content. The letter was signed by 25 additional members of Congress.\n\nFollowing the October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel, analysts have documented surging graphic violent content and misinformation on the platform, including Hamas\u2019 terroristic propaganda videos. Much of this content violates X\u2019s platform policies, which prohibit \u201cengaging in or promoting violent acts,\u201d and \u201crecruiting, or providing or distributing services (such as media/propaganda) to further stated goals.\u201d\n\n\u201cSeveral weeks ago, reports from multiple nonprofit research groups showed X Premium accounts spreading Hamas terrorist propaganda videos glorifying barbaric acts of violence against Israelis,\u201d the members wrote. \u201cFurther, these reports demonstrated that X is profiting from the spread of this gruesome and harmful propaganda through account subscription fees and ad revenue.\u201d\n\nThe members continued, \u201cAs of today, most of the terrorist propaganda posts flagged by [EU researchers] inexplicably remain live on your platform. Given the many flagrant examples of X profiting off this content, we need detailed answers from X in considering potential legislation that would prevent such activity in the future.\u201d\n\nCongressmen Goldman and Raskin called on X to abide by its regulatory policies, particularly its \u2018violent and hateful entities\u2019 guidelines, and provide answers to the following questions about persistent misinformation and violent content on X.\n\nThe members wrote, \u201cWe also ask that you provide written responses to the following questions:\n\nPlease explain how these violating posts and accounts were allowed to remain live for days after their policy violations had been publicized?\n\nWhat action does X plan to take about Hamas-related content currently on the platform?\n\nWhat changes does X intend to implement to ensure that the harmful spread of terrorist propaganda does not happen again?\u201d\n\nRead the full letter here or below.\n\nDear Ms. Yaccarino and Mr. Musk,\n\nWe write to express our grave concern surrounding X\u2019s ongoing failure to abide by its own policies governing the promotion of misinformation and hateful, violent, and terroristic propaganda videos, which shockingly have been used by the company for profit.\n\nThis follows a troubling pattern of increased antisemitism on the platform since Mr. Musk\u2019s purchase. A March 2023 study by CASM Technology and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) documented a near-doubling of the total number of antisemitic tweets in his first three months of ownership. In September, in response to this dramatic increase of antisemitism on X, Israel\u2019s Prime Minister personally urged Mr. Musk to tackle antisemitism on the platform.\n\nNow, in the days following Hamas\u2019 horrific October 7th terrorist attack on Israel, we\u2019ve seen an inexcusable situation become outright indefensible.\n\nSeveral weeks ago, reports from multiple nonprofit research groups showed X Premium accounts spreading Hamas terrorist propaganda videos glorifying barbaric acts of violence against Israelis. Further, these reports demonstrated that X is profiting from the spread of this gruesome and harmful propaganda through account subscription fees and ad revenue.\n\nIn fact, in mid-October, European Union (EU) regulators announced a probe to determine whether X continues to violate European law in allowing terroristic content and misinformation to remain online. As you are no doubt aware, the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act prohibits large social media companies from allowing the spread of \u201cillegal content, online disinformation or other societal risks.\u201d\n\nAs of today, most of the terrorist propaganda posts flagged by these researchers inexplicably remain live on your platform. Given the many flagrant examples of X profiting off this content, we need detailed answers from X in considering potential legislation that would prevent such activity in the future.\n\nX Amplifying Terrorist Propaganda\n\nOn October 12, a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) documented numerous examples of X Premium accounts openly spreading Hamas propaganda videos\u2014the same videos featured on the website of the military wing of Hamas, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades (EQB), which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. These videos, which included Hamas branding and imagery, featured scenes of bloodied bodies on the ground, gunmen shooting at buildings with automatic weapons, and rocket and drone attacks on Israeli tanks and vehicles.\n\nTTP\u2019s report also documented numerous posts by a non-premium X account that appears to be linked to the EQB. The X account, @Pal_resi48, also goes by EQB, and is hyperlinked directly from the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades website.\n\nIn addition to posting videos glorifying and celebrating terrorism, this EQB account has recently begun spreading propaganda about Hamas\u2019s purported treatment of hostages in several languages to make its propaganda accessible to the international community.\n\nA separate report released last week by ISD further confirmed and quantified the spread of official Hamas propaganda videos on X. In a 24-hour period, ISD researchers identified 128 posts from 45 unique accounts \u201ccontaining glorification and support for terrorist content on X.\u201d Researchers described uncensored videos depicting the desecration of corpses and \u201cCCTV footage in which civilians are shot and subsequently dragged from their vehicles.\u201d\n\nISD explains that these posts were surfaced by searching for the \u2018al-Aqsa Storm\u2019 hashtag in Arabic. This same hashtag is also used by many X users to provide updates and track the conflict generally, leading researchers to conclude that \u201caverage users trying to engage with the rapid escalation of events on the ground will likely be exposed to al-Qassem propaganda.\u201d\n\nThis terrorist propaganda is not confined to the darkest corners of your platform. Both TTP and ISD reports note that one of the accounts spreading the unedited Hamas propaganda videos is @WarMonitors, an account which Mr. Musk personally endorsed as a good source for \u201cfollowing the war in real time\u201d before deleting the post when informed of its history of antisemitism.\n\nX Profiting from this Propaganda\n\nWe are further outraged by the clear indicators that X is profiting from the spread of Hamas\u2019s terrorist propaganda\u2014both through monthly subscription fees collected from some propaganda spreaders, and through ads displayed in replies to posts by both Premium and regular accounts.\n\nTTP\u2019s report named specific X Premium accounts that remain active. ISD researchers reported that at least 20 out of 45 accounts it found to have posted terrorist propaganda were X Premium accounts, meaning that they are paying for verification without any formalized vetting process and being promoted by the website\u2019s algorithm.\n\nResearchers also documented multiple instances in which X placed \u201cconversation ads\u201d in the replies of Hamas propaganda videos circulated by these Premium accounts. TTP noted ads from the American Investment Council and the National Football League in the replies of posts from the EQB\u2019s @Pal_resi48 account, which misleads users into believing that these companies agree with or actively support the Hamas propaganda spread by these accounts. X has a responsibility not to harm the public image of its clients and such conduct is a gross violation of that duty.\n\nX Profiting from Spread of Misinformation\n\nIn addition to profiting off violent content by a terrorist organization, X has financially benefited from the spread of demonstrably false and misleading content as well.\n\nThe media watchdog, NewsGuard, recently published analysis of the 250 most-engaged posts \u2014 likes, reposts, replies, and bookmarks \u2014 during the first week of the conflict that promoted at least one of ten prominent false or unsubstantiated narratives relating to the war. Their analysis revealed that 186 out of these 250 posts (74 percent) were posted by accounts verified by X \u2014 accounts that X directly profits from. NewsGuard identified these ten false or unsubstantiated claims. Their analysis also found that posts advancing these myths collectively received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed more than 100 million times globally in just one week.\n\nGiven X\u2019s major cuts to content moderation staff over the last year, it appears that X has willfully permitted, and benefited from, the illegal spread of terrorist propaganda. Such behavior from one of the world\u2019s most widely used social media platforms is wholly unacceptable.\n\nClear Violations of Twitter Policy\n\nMany of the posts identified by ISD and TTP violate X\u2019s \u201cViolent and hateful entities\u201d policy, which prohibits promotion of terrorist organizations and their propaganda. This policy\u2014updated as recently as April 2023\u2014states that examples of violating content include X users posting \u201con behalf of, indirectly, or directly for violent or hateful entity:\n\nEngaging in or promoting violent acts\n\nRecruiting, or providing or distributing services (such as media/propaganda) to further stated goals.\u201d\n\nThere is no question that the posting of videos that celebrate scenes of \u201cblood-soaked\u201d or \u201cdesecrated\u201d bodies qualifies as the promotion of \u201cviolent acts.\u201d An EQB thread promoting a hostage video, which purports to demonstrate Hamas\u2019 supposedly humane care of a captured Israeli citizen, would certainly appear to \u201cfurther [its] stated goals.\u201d\n\nX\u2019s \u201cPerpetrators of Violent Attacks\u201d policy, updated as recently as February 2023, prohibits accounts from sharing content produced by the perpetrators of terrorist attacks. This policy states that X will take action to remove \u201cperpetrator-generated media related to the attack in all instances.\u201d\n\nAs a reminder, the United States designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. There is no ambiguity about whether violent videos generated by the group qualify under these policies. These are videos that carry official Hamas branding and iconography. Since both policies indicate they were updated this year under Mr. Musk\u2019s leadership, there should also be no question about whether these policies remain in effect.\n\nWe are demanding that you uphold your public commitments and enforce your policies. Accordingly, no later than December 1, 2023, we request that you provide all forms of written communications, including email, text messages, other messaging services, or X direct messages, relating to content moderation for any posts or accounts associated with, related to, or connected to Hamas.\n\nWe also ask that you provide written responses to the following questions within the same time frame:\n\nPlease explain how these violating posts and accounts were allowed to remain live for days after their policy violations had been publicized?\n\nWhat action does X plan to take about Hamas-related content currently on the platform?\n\nWhat changes does X intend to implement to ensure that the harmful spread of terrorist propaganda does not happen again?\n\nWhile many news outlets and humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, many of the United Nations\u2019 agencies, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which participates in the verified user option, continue to use X to share critical news and updates, the platform has become a hotbed of misinformation and terrorist propaganda. X not only has an obligation to abide by its own content moderation policies, but it has a public duty to ensure that violent images and propaganda from a terrorist organization are not spread on its platform. We look forward to reviewing your responsive materials to this letter no later than December 1.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://goldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressmen-dan-goldman-jamie-raskin-demand-elon-musk-x-leadership-enforce"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.983963117003441, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}