X just published its first transparency report in years and it’s too short

For the first time since CEO Elon Musk X took over (formerly Twitter), the social media platform is taking the public behind the scenes of its increasingly opaque reporting and moderation practices. Sort of.

The 15-page Global Transparency Report, released today, is the first public report on internal enforcement data since Dec. 2021 (Musk acquired Twitter in Oct. 2022). It covers the first six months of 2024 and attempts to paint a picture of the platform’s new enforcement ethos. According to the data, X received more than 224 million user reports, suspended more than 5 million users, and deleted more than 10 million posts between January and June.

Previously, Twitter published biennial reports on its enforcement mechanisms through its Transparency CenterThe practice began in 2012 and only stopped when a new owner took over the platform. Musk spoke openly at the time about combating government “bullying” of social media platforms and tech leaders, including barring researchers from internal data like transparency reports.

Now, the platform has changed its tune. “Our policies and enforcement principles are grounded in human rights, and we have taken a comprehensive and holistic approach to freedom of expression by investing in the development of a broader range of solutions, with a specific focus on education, rehabilitation and deterrence,” the report reads. “These beliefs form the basis of ‘Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Reach’ – our enforcement philosophy, which means we limit the reach of posts only where appropriate, to make content less discoverable as an alternative to removal.”

The report is noticeably sparser than previous iterations. It provides a brief summary of user reporting and associated corporate actions, covering a variety of policy areas including child safety, abuse and harassment, platform manipulation, and suicide and self-harm. It shows a hybrid machine-learning and human moderation process, with an “international, cross-functional team with 24/7 coverage” making enforcement decisions.

What “rehabilitation” looks like is not explained. However, previous reinstatements of some of the platform’s worst offenders and the report’s emphasis on account suspensions suggest X is moving away from outright bans.

X sent 370,588 reports of child exploitation, as required by law, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline in the first half of the year. The platform also says it suspended more than 2 million accounts actively engaged in child sexual abuse (CSAM) media. In 2021, X/Twitter reported 86,000 cases to NCMEC. The number rose to 98,000 in 2022, before seeing a huge jump to 870,000 in 2023.

An X spokesperson explained the jump in numbers in a statement to Mashable. “In 2023, X updated its enforcement policies to also suspend users who engaged in actionable CSAM content (Like, Reply, Share, Bookmark, etc.) and added additional proactive defenses. We saw a spike in enforcements following these changes (detecting and cleaning up an existing issue), and we believe those changes have been effective in discouraging users from sharing or searching for CSAM (actions decline over time, even as we continue to improve defenses).”

The report also provides (limited) information on government data requests and takedowns, previously a major focus of Twitter’s reporting as it pushed for a more “open” internet. At the time of the 2021 report, X/Twitter said it 11,460 requests for information processed from 67 countries, and complied with 40.2 percent of them. In 2024, the platform reported receiving more than 18,000 requests for information and 72,000 requests for content removal from an unknown number of countries. X reportedly released information in 52 percent of cases and complied with 70 percent of the removal requests.

The report comes as the platform is subtly revamping itself and its generative AI offerings ahead of the election. In recent months, X has quietly reinvested in its safety and security teams, while Musk has simultaneously redefined site-wide “transparency” and bolstered content moderation tools. The CEO also announced this week that the company will soon shut down the site’s blocking feature.