“Yeah, they’re gone”: Musk confirms cuts to X’s election integrity team

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The Elon Musk-owned social network formerly named Twitter has reportedly cut half of its election integrity team just weeks after saying it would expand the group.

Now operating under the name X, Musk's firm "is cutting around half of the global team devoted to limiting disinformation and election fraud on the platform, including the head of the group, according to three people familiar with the situation," The Information reported yesterday, adding:

X management notified employees of the layoffs last Friday. The cuts hit all four Dublin-based members of the team, including Aaron Rodericks, its leader, who is based in Ireland, the people familiar with the matter said. X executives told the team that having elections integrity employees based in Europe wasn't necessary, according to one of the people. The team, which was instrumental in handling coordinated spam and bot networks, had around two dozen members before Musk bought Twitter last year and is now down to less than half a dozen based primarily in North America.

NBC News later reported that it also confirmed the cuts with a source.