X (formerly Twitter)

Reasons to avoid

1. The European Commission fined X €131 million ($140 million) in December 2025 for violating the EU Digital Services Act, finding that the platform's blue checkmark system was deceptively designed, its advertising repository lacked required transparency, and it denied researchers access to public data they were legally entitled to use. It was the first DSA fine issued to a major social media platform.cnbc.com2025-12-05
2. Elon Musk laid off approximately 3,700 employees, roughly half of Twitter's workforce, within days of completing his acquisition in November 2022, then issued a midnight ultimatum demanding remaining staff commit to working in an "extremely hardcore" way or resign. Hundreds more departed after the ultimatum, with entire teams responsible for trust, safety, and infrastructure walking out.nytimes.com2022-11-11
3. After Musk's acquisition, X cut employees who worked on election integrity and countering misinformation, loosened its rules around hate speech, and reinstated the accounts of extremists who had previously been banned for violating the platform's policies. NBC News found that X's Community Notes system, touted by Musk as his solution to misinformation, has seen participation plummet in 2025, raising compliance concerns with EU regulators.nbcnews.com2025-06-06
4. A Center for Countering Digital Hate investigation found that X left up 86% of posts flagged for hate speech, including neo-Nazi content, anti-Black racism, and antisemitism, after a full week of them being reported through official reporting tools. Major advertisers including Apple and Disney were found to have their ads placed directly alongside the unmoderated hate speech.axios.com2023-09-13
5. LSE researchers found that verified accounts on X, meaning users paying $8 per month for a blue checkmark, played a central role in fueling far-right riots across the UK in summer 2024, amplifying inflammatory and false content that reached millions before any corrective action was taken. The study found that the pay-to-play verification system gave megaphone status to accounts spreading extremist content with no identity or accountability check.blogs.lse.ac.uk2025-11-19
6. A peer-reviewed study in PLOS ONE analyzed 2.7 million posts on X and found that hate speech increased 50% between January 2022 and June 2023, with transphobic slurs rising 260%, racist content up 42%, and engagement with hate speech posts growing 70% per day relative to average content. USC researchers concluded that X's policies to reduce harmful content were not sufficiently effective at preventing algorithmic amplification of the worst material.viterbischool.usc.edu2025-02-14
7. X updated its privacy policy in September 2023 to allow the platform to collect users' biometric data, including face and eye scans, as well as employment history and educational background, without specifying exactly how the data would be used or shared. CNN reported the change represented a significant expansion of the personal information X could harvest from users under its updated terms.cnn.com2023-09-01
8. A class-action lawsuit filed in December 2022 alleged that Twitter/X laid off 57% of its female employees compared to 47% of its male employees after Musk's takeover, with women in engineering roles fired at a rate of 63% versus 48% for men. The plaintiffs' statistician said the chance of that gender disparity occurring randomly was approximately 9 in 100 trillion.axios.com2022-12-08