Elon Musk blames 'spam/scam bot' for some pictures on X being labeled 'graphic content'

• Some images on X were labeled as "graphic content" due to a "scam bot," Elon Musk said.
• Multiple users reported that pictures of books, trees, and cars were blurred out.

X was hit by a bug over the weekend that caused some images to be wrongly labeled as "graphic content."

The social media site said numerous posts were "incorrectly labeled" as "sensitive media" in the latest technical problem, which Elon Musk blamed on a "spam/scam bot."

Multiple users reported that posts containing seemingly inoffensive images such as books, trees, and cars had been blurred out and labeled "graphic content."

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

What I posted and what @X is showing people. So weird… how in the world is this graphic content? @elonmusk? anyone? pic.twitter.com/hpvzMBPwxS

— Josiah Kennealy (@JosiahKennealy) January 21, 2024

Musk acknowledged the issues in an X post, writing that "an X spam/scam bot accidentally flagged many legitimate accounts today. This is being fixed."

The site also addressed the problem in a post from its "Safety" account on Sunday.

"A bug in our system caused X to incorrectly label numerous posts as Sensitive Media. We've fixed the underlying issue and are now working to remove labels from impacted posts," X said.

Another post a few hours later stated that all "incorrectly applied labels" had been removed.

The bug is the latest glitch to hit X in recent months. In December, the site suffered its largest outage since Musk took over, with nearly 100,000 users reporting issues with the site.

There must be some bug on X. I post a photo of trees and snow and it labels it as graphic content pic.twitter.com/SJu3D98yKq

— Metaverse Morgan (@morganlinton) January 21, 2024

Another bug in August 2023 temporarily broke all pictures and links posted before 2014, The Verge reported. In July the site briefly became unusable for many after Musk introduced "rate limits" that restricted the number of posts people could view due to high levels of "data scraping."

Musk has slashed the workforce at X, formerly Twitter, since taking over in 2022, firing around 90% of staff.

Insiders and experts have long warned that X's reduced workforce means it's likely that glitches and bugs will continue to pile up. One former Twitter executive told BI last year that the loss of "institutional knowledge" would result in an increasing number of technical problems.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.