Elon Musk's X has committed to assessing illegal hate and terrorism content within an average of 24 hours, limiting access to UK-banned groups, and delivering quarterly updates to the watchdog. An ongoing Ofcom inquiry persists.

X has reached an agreement with Ofcom, the UK's communications authority, on measures to combat illegal hate speech and terrorist material, the regulator announced Friday, following intensified scrutiny through the fall and winter months.

The arrangement requires Musk's platform to examine flagged illegal hate and terrorism posts within 24 hours on average, evaluate at least 85% within 48 hours, and furnish quarterly performance metrics to Ofcom for the coming year.

Additionally, X will block UK users from accounts run by or for groups outlawed under UK terrorism statutes and hire outside specialists to revamp its reporting process, which advocacy organizations have long criticized as unclear.

This focus is crucial, as many complaints to Ofcom about X in the last year centered on reports not being properly acknowledged or addressed.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom's director of online safety enforcement, stated that terrorist material and illegal hate speech continue to appear on major social platforms, noting this issue's heightened relevance in the UK amid recent hate crimes targeting the Jewish community.

Imran Ahmed from the Center for Countering Digital Hate credited the pledges to ongoing advocacy efforts, sparked by last year's assault on Heaton Park Synagogue near Manchester.

The UK has faced a series of troubling events, including the Heaton Park incident, a deadly attack in north London last month deemed terrorism by police, and a surge of antisemitic content on X documented by CCDH after the Golders Green event.

These new measures establish baseline procedures rather than directly responding to those episodes.

Reactions varied. Danny Stone, head of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, called it a positive initial step but emphasized X's ongoing shortcomings in addressing racism.

Ofcom stressed that its broader investigation into X, covering content moderation systems and concerns over the Grok AI tool, is still underway. The Friday deal represents voluntary obligations, not a full resolution.

A parallel examination targets Grok, focusing on X's management of AI-generated explicit images from the chatbot. Earlier this month, X restricted Grok's image tools to subscribers amid deepfake issues and UK regulatory warnings. Friday's pledges leave this matter unresolved.

This fits into X's global regulatory challenges: the European Commission probes hate speech failures, identifying X as a top disinformation source; Australian and Singaporean authorities raise similar concerns. The UK deal joins an existing lineup.

These commitments align with the 2023 Online Safety Act, mandating swift removal of illegal content by big platforms or fines up to 10% of worldwide revenue.

The 24-hour average target provides the quantifiable standard Ofcom sought, while the 85%-within-48-hours threshold enables straightforward verification.

Quarterly reports over the next year will offer Ofcom its first detailed insights into whether these promises effectively accelerate illegal content takedowns as required by law.