Tom Akhurst

Global content compliance @X Aussie based in Europe 🦘
Posts reflect my own views

[Safety @Safety]

There is no place in our society for predators to share intimate photos and videos of others without their consent. X has zero tolerance for non-consensual intimate images, unwanted sexual content, or any kind of exploitative behavior. We have never allowed such behavior on X and will continue to hold the line.

Tomorrow, the US Take It Down Act goes into effect. X supported this law in Congress and has long followed its principles. Here’s what can be done to act quickly against content that violates the act:

- You should report posts by tapping the three-dot menu (⋯), selecting “Private or Non-Consensual Content” > “Report content under the US Take It Down Act” and then completing the form. Our team reviews these reports as fast as possible and well within the Act’s 48-hour timeline.
- You can also submit a report directly through our Help Center: https://t.co/tlpSWzE5X8.

We continue to improve our safety systems every day. This includes investing more in automation and working with external partners to better protect users who have been impacted. As part of these efforts, we have made progress to ensure copies of known cases of non-consensual intimate imagery are also proactively removed from the platform.

For more information on our policies and removal process for non-consensual intimate photos and videos, please visit: https://t.co/8GBE1bEiHH.

[Tom Akhurst @tomakhurst]

Do you think it is productive, democratic or sustainable for Australia to maintain its reliance on income tax as a disproportionate share of total tax revenue (almost double the OECD average)? Meanwhile wealth inequity is protected and aggravated through Howard-era CG, super, home etc tax concessions

[Safety @Safety]

As we observe Self Harm Awareness month, X’s Safety team continues to strengthen protections against harmful content. Key changes we’ve made to our Self-harm policy include:

› Enhanced Detection: X is enhancing detection to spot predatory behavior targeting minors (especially those showing self-harm signs). Predatory accounts will be suspended and reported to law enforcement, where appropriate. Minors exhibiting self-harm behaviors and interacting with predatory accounts may also have their accounts suspended as a protective measure.

› Tougher rules on graphic self-harm content: Graphic or gory images/videos showing cutting, self-injury, or self-harm without recovery context is not allowed as it can normalize harm or attract predators.

› Improved signals to ensure supportive conversations about mental health are protected when they focus on recovery.

Read more here - https://t.co/1omk0A7uii

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on Timeline and prevent manipulation of the program.

During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground. With today’s AI technologies, it is trivial to create content that can mislead people.

Starting now, users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict—without adding a disclosure that it was made with AI—will be suspended from Creator Revenue Sharing for 90 days. Subsequent violations will result in a permanent suspension from the program.

This will be flagged to us by any post with a Community Note or if the content contains meta data (or other signals) from generative AI tools.

We will continue to refine our policies and product to ensure X can be trusted during these critical moments.

[Nick Bryant @NickBryantNY]

This is provoking a lot of discussion. Our interview this morning with @TurnbullMalcolm on the Carney speech and its challenge for Australia and the Albanese government.

https://t.co/ZlnuIJOQPz

[Safety @Safety]

https://t.co/awlfMjX6FS

[Tom Akhurst @tomakhurst]

We must reject Hanson's rhetoric.
It appears that the hero of the Bondi tragedy - the bystander who disarmed one of the terrorists - was a Syrian Muslim immigrant to Australia. This tragedy is not an issue of immigration; it is a tragedy of hatred. We must not become hateful in turn. We must come together and protect our Australian values of openness, inclusiveness, diversity and respect.

[Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 @PaulineHansonOz]

For nearly three decades I have been warning Australia about the dangers of letting people into this country who refuse to integrate and assimilate with our way of life.

We must take a stronger stance on the people and cultures that we allow into the country.

[Safety @Safety]

Starting 10 December 2025, you must be at least 16 years old to use an X account in Australia. It’s not our choice - it's what the Australian law requires following amendments to the Online Safety Act 2021 to introduce a social media minimum age. We’re drawing on our existing age assurance processes to make this as smooth, private, and secure as possible.

Here's what this means:

If you're under 16: Unfortunately, you won't be able to use an X account until you are 16 or over. If you think we've got this wrong, or if you wish to reinstate your account once you are 16 or over, you can follow the instructions to verify your age within the account lockout notice you received.

If you're 16 or older: You can follow the in-app instructions to verify your age. We'll send in-app reminders — it's fast and we delete the data within 30 days.

Creating a new account: If your date of birth shows you're under 16, creation will be blocked. Otherwise, you'll go through the same quick verification steps.

For more information on the Australian social media minimum age law, including how we're handling the required minimum age checks and your privacy, please visit our Help Center page at https://t.co/ZcXEfSnDor.

Other helpful resources:
Affected accounts can submit a request to access their account information here: https://t.co/dId1tJgY4a
Report an underage account here: https://t.co/KtkE0nwIuQ

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Our @CommunityNotes system and asking @Grok if something is true contribute enormously to fighting fast-moving falsehoods!

[Kylie @safety @kyliem]

I’m proud to share an important update on the work X’s child safety team has done to protect minors on and off the platform. When X is made aware of content depicting or promoting child sexual exploitation, including links to third party sites where this content can be accessed, the accounts sharing this content are reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). 

As a result of X’s efforts, in 2024, 309 reports made by X to NCMEC led to arrests and subsequent convictions in 10 cases that were confirmed by Law Enforcement agencies. And in the first half of 2025, 170 reports led to arrests. X made a total of 686,176 reports in 2024 and approximately 46% of the reports made to NCMEC were submitted without requiring a human moderator at X to review potentially traumatic content. 

We remain committed to protecting children on our platform, and we’ll continue to invest in, and improve detection of child sexual exploitation through automation.

[Safety @Safety]

Update on X's Efforts to Combat Terrorism on the Platform

On the anniversary of the October 7 attack, we're sharing an update on X's ongoing work to tackle terrorist activity across our platform.

X has zero tolerance for terrorist organizations, violent extremist groups, those responsible for violent attacks, or anyone who supports or promotes their illicit activities. From the onset of the conflict, we activated our crisis protocol and stood up the company to address the rapidly evolving situation with the highest level of urgency. As a result, we've suspended over 22,500 accounts linked to violent entities in the region—including those affiliated with Hamas. We’ve also proactively identified and acted on more than 3.5 million pieces of content that breached our X Rules, such as Violent Content and Hateful Conduct. This is consistent with our policies and enforcement being built on broad principles of violence and criminal behavior, enabling a comprehensive approach to addressing harmful content.

Automation plays a central role in proactively identifying and suspending violating accounts and content—stopping terrorists and their propaganda at the gates. The vast majority of suspensions for terrorism promotion come from a mix of automated detection and purpose-built internal proprietary tools. In fact, more than 90% of our actions against designated terrorist entities are proactive. We're dedicated to continuing to invest in advanced technologies to better detect and remove terrorist and violent extremist content before it can harm users.

We also maintain a highly trained team for countering terrorism on X. This group includes experts in policy, counterterrorism, law enforcement, legal matters, product development, and engineering.

Anyone—whether they have an X account or not—can report suspected policy violations through our tools.

[Safety @Safety]

At X, we have zero tolerance for sharing sexual, nude, or intimate images without consent. Sharing such content poses serious safety risks for victims. Learn more here - https://t.co/wHd0X8X1Sl.

As part of our commitment to combat this, we've partnered with @StopNCIIorg to introduce tech that protects against intimate image abuse online.

Here's how it works:

If you're concerned that an intimate image may get shared online, visit https://t.co/EQKdoTfj7O and create unique hashes (digital fingerprints) of your image from your own device.

Only the hashes, not the images, are shared with https://t.co/EQKdoTfj7O, keeping your content private and on your device.

We receive these hashes at X. If a matching image is posted and violates our policies against NCII, the content is blocked from being shared and the account is suspended.

For details on this #global initiative, visit https://t.co/EQKdoTfj7O.

This partnership is a big step toward a safer X for all, boosting our detection and enforcement against non-consensual imagery.

[Safety @Safety]

https://t.co/MIpF4rPVES

[Tom Akhurst @tomakhurst]

X is leading the way with @CommunityNotes, a truly unbiased, democratic, transparent and scalable solution to misinformation. Grok also enhances users' ability to engage critically with the information they encounter https://t.co/bwsnhrcQCW

[Tom Akhurst @tomakhurst]

Incredible

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

View of Starship landing burn and splashdown on Flight 10, made possible by SpaceX’s recovery team. Starship made it through reentry with intentionally missing tiles, completed maneuvers to intentionally stress its flaps, had visible damage to its aft skirt and flaps, and still executed a flip and landing burn that placed it approximately 3 meters from its targeted splashdown point

[Tom Akhurst @tomakhurst]

@narendramodi wtf

[Kylie @safety @kyliem]

I’m incredibly proud of our team’s work on the new CSAM hash matching system. This is hard work, but incredibly important to protect kids online—thank you, team!