Over the previous week, X has been hit with a spread of recent challenges, in varied areas, amid ongoing issues about its new “Freedom of Speech, Not Attain” strategy, which places extra emphasis on de-amplification of rule-breaking posts, versus removals and bans.

Conceptually, that strategy makes some sense, in that it nonetheless permits individuals to share their opinions, with out what many considered because the heavy-handed moderation of the platform’s former administration.

However in follow, it’s proving tougher, as extra investigations discover issues with X’s programs.

Simply this week, X has:

• Come underneath elevated scrutiny after the Heart for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) revealed a brand new report which it claims reveals that X is failing to adequately police hate speech, together with racism and antisemitism in posts. The Anti-Defamation League not too long ago revealed comparable findings, although X has each refuted the claims and threatened authorized motion in every occasion to this point.
• Been criticized by the Indian Authorities for failing to adjust to authorities orders to take away content material. The Indian Authorities has a historical past of looking for to silence dissent, which each the earlier Twitter, and present X groups have challenged.
• Had a subpoena filed in opposition to it in Amsterdam over the unlawful assortment and utilization of consumer knowledge between 2013 and 2021. That is clearly earlier than Elon’s time on the firm, however X, as an entity, may nonetheless be hit with any penalties that outcome from the case.

The final observe, after all, will not be a results of Musk’s modifications, however it’s one other authorized problem for Musk and Co. to take care of, whereas additionally working a a lot leaner operation, with fewer sources to answer each request being thrown its method.

On the similar time, there are additionally potential conflicts with Musk’s different companies to contemplate. Tesla, for instance, has been trying to develop gross sales into India for a while, and it’ll be fascinating to see if X is ready to preserve its problem to the Indian regime, with out inflicting points for that push.

Apparently, in Walter Isaacson’s new Elon Musk biography, which was launched this week, Isaacson shared this perception into an interplay that Musk had with journalist Bari Weiss early on within the Twitter takeover:

“At one level throughout their two-hour dialog, she requested how Tesla’s enterprise pursuits in China may have an effect on the best way he managed Twitter. Musk obtained aggravated. That was not what the dialog was speculated to be about. Weiss continued. Musk mentioned that Twitter would certainly should watch out concerning the phrases it used relating to China, as a result of Tesla’s enterprise could possibly be threatened.”

Tesla has important enterprise pursuits in China, and whereas X will not be obtainable to Chinese language customers, as a result of regional restrictions applied by the CCP, that is seemingly a reasonably direct acknowledgment that Musk does have to take care of some stability in moderating X content material, in consideration of his different pursuits.

In fact, Elon would have been effectively conscious of those conflicts earlier than he provided to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, however the added regulatory scrutiny and authorized explorations are little question taking some toll on the brand new X workforce.

It’s quite a bit for anybody to handle, and it’ll be fascinating to see how X is ready to preserve its present strategy and programs, whereas additionally appeasing the related governments and authorities, and ideally, profitable again extra advert spend.

Final week, Musk famous that U.S. advert spend continues to be down by 60% year-over-year, due, in Musk’s view, to strain from activist teams, who proceed to report that X is permitting extremely offensive content material to stay viewable within the app. However on the similar time, Musk additionally famous that advert spend in Asian markets is rising, whereas its different bets on subscriptions and elevated API pricing have made it much less reliant, total, on U.S. advert consumption.

How true that’s stays to be seen, provided that the U.S. has historically contributed round 50% of the platform’s total income revenue. But when Elon can certainly determine a approach to scale back the corporate’s reliance on adverts, that will be a giant step in direction of facilitating his broader imaginative and prescient.

However the challenges look set to maintain coming for the app, particularly because it appears to maneuver into funds, and facilitating banking-type companies in-stream. No platform has been capable of meet all the regulatory necessities for such to this point, and you may count on that X goes to return underneath intense scrutiny, particularly within the wake of the current crypto crash.

In different phrases, constructing X goes to be a really uphill battle, and it’s a must to ponder whether Elon continues to be as glad as he was that day he first walked into Twitter HQ, carrying a sink and laughing at his personal jokes.

Perhaps, as Musk says, his rules on free speech are sufficient to maintain powering him ahead. However with new EU laws additionally coming into impact, there’s a variety of strain on the a lot smaller X workforce.