X Agrees to Ofcom Targets for Reviewing UK Illegal Hate and Terror Reports Within 24 Hours on Average

Social media platform X has pledged to review UK reports of suspected illegal hate and terrorist content within 24 hours on average. The target applies to content flagged through X's illegal content reporting tool. Ofcom has accepted the commitments.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's online safety director, called the commitments a step forward. He said they were of particular importance after recent religiously-motivated crimes targeting Jewish communities in the UK. Griffiths said Ofcom had evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech was persisting on some of the largest social media sites.

Ofcom launched a compliance programme in December assessing whether the biggest social media companies have adequate systems for dealing with reports of illegal hate and terror material. X will submit performance data to Ofcom every three months for a year so the regulator can monitor whether it is meeting the targets.

X has set a target to average less than 24 hours for its reviews of UK illegal hate and terror content reports.

It has also promised to assess at least 85 percent of reports within 48 hours. The company will engage with experts about reporting systems for illegal hate and terror content. X will withhold UK access to accounts reported for posting UK illegal terrorist content if it determines they are operated by or on behalf of a terrorist organisation proscribed in the UK.

The BBC reported that Ofcom set out the two further commitments from X to better protect UK users from illegal hate and terror content. Danny Stone, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said the action was a good start but that there was still more to do. "X is failing in so many regards to tackle open racism on its platform," he said.