X suspends 800 million accounts in one year over manipulation attempts after crackdown on wartime AI deepfakes

Speaking with MPs, X explained that the accounts breached X's rules in relation to manipulation, as the platform continues to battle bots and fake accounts as they attempt to flood the site with spam.

The social media firm has told MPs there has been a constant battle to halt state-backed attempts to hijack the platform in recent years - most notably by the likes of Russia, followed closely by Iran and China.

Wifredo Fernández, a government affairs executive at the platform’s parent company, X Corp, said: “There are efforts every single day to create inauthentic networks of accounts.”

It comes just days after a 'wartime' crackdown by the platform tackling misinformation stemming from AI deepfakes - with a range of content now featuring a 'Made with AI' label following complaints about the authenticity of material.

On Monday, Liz Kendall said she chaired a meeting with all the major tech companies centred around violence against women and girls. No one from Elon Musk's X bothered to attend, the technology secretary told LBC.

Read more: Elon Musk’s X skipped government meeting on violence against women, minister tells LBC

Read more: Elon Musk’s Grok blasted for 'sickening' racist rants in 'vulgar' X trend

The move comes after a number of users repeatedly posted unlabelled AI-generated war videos following the onset of the Iran conflict in a bid to monetise content.

It led many users' social media feeds to be flooded with fake battle scenes that never took place.

It let X to threaten that accounts that post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict will be suspended from earning revenue for 90 days if they contravene the rules by posting unlabelled fake content.

Speaking with MPs, Mr Fernández explained that the scale of the spamming saw “several hundred million accounts” taken down in 2024 - a huge number given that X has approximately 300 million monthly users worldwide.

Fernández explained that he was “quite confident” that the remaining accounts on the platform were authentic and not bot accounts or those run by foreign state actors.

According to X, manipulative accounts are defined as those engaging in “bulk, aggressive or disruptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience”, with spam defined as “unsolicited, repeated actions” that directly impact other accounts.

It comes as X's Product Head Nikita Bier said the company aims to ensure people have access to real information without questioning the authenticity of material.

In a bid to improve transparency, the platform said the new 'Made with AI' tag would help users understand whether what they are watching is human or machine generated.

It comes as Elon Musk's Grok was found to produce racist rants after being asked for "vulgar" comments in a sick new user trend on X.

Streams of public posts show vile AI-generated replies filled with racist vitriol about Islam and Hinduism.

Users are able to access these responses by asking Grok to generate "vulgar" and no-holds-barred comments.

The chatbot's responses have been described by the UK government as "sickening and irresponsible," saying they go against British values.

It comes two months after the social media giant was threatened with being banned in Britain for producing sexualised images of women being undressed.