Elon Musk’s social media platform X has accused Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee of making “inaccurate” statements to the Irish parliament over recent enquiries into internet censorship.
Irish officials have attempted to shift blame for recent anti-migrant riots in the capital Dublin to companies that run social media pages. There has been a public perception that the violence after a migrant stabbed three children to death in Dublin on 23 November was fuelled by online posts.
At a speech at Dáil Éireann, McEntee said that while Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook as well as TikTok, responds to requests from the Irish state to censor certain content, Musk’s X does not.
Global Government Affairs wrote on X:
“This is inaccurate. We have proactively taken action on more than 1,230 pieces of content under our rules relating to the riots. We met with the Coimisiún na Meán on November 24 to discuss our response. The Gardai did not make any formal requests to us until late Monday 27th… “
X has completely denied the allegations, while the platform’s global government affairs account said it provided all possible assistance to police in Ireland during the riots. The platform claimed, describing McEntee’s statements as “inaccurate”:
“We have proactively taken action on more than 1,230 pieces of content under our rules relating to the riots.”
It also highlights that Irish police requests to remove content from the site were only sent to the social media giant on 27 November. X added:
“The only appeal we have received from the Gardai [Irish police] relating to the enforcement of our rules is for a single post. We hope the minister will clarify her remarks.”
The European Commission has asked social media platforms to censor posts during last week’s riots in Ireland sparked by the stabbing of three children.
