Elon Musk seeks Irish spin doctor to help governments ‘understand X’

The “senior government affairs manager” will be focused on countries outside Ireland, particularly in Europe, where Mr Musk’s social media platform is being investigated for allowing extreme, hateful and terrorist content.

The job listing is one of the highest-profile new appointments after Mr Musk dismantled most of Twitter’s staff structure in Dublin after taking over the company. The Irish High Court reversed his attempt fire former Twitter Ireland boss Sinead McSweeney for not responding to an email.

The new appointee is expected to work closely with Niamh McDade, X’s current head of government affairs for the UK and Ireland, and Claire Dile, X’s director of government affairs for Europe. Ms McDade and Ms Dile recently made representations to government on the interaction between children and artificial intelligence on the social media platform.

The European Commission recently launched legal proceedings against X for not preventing illegal, extreme and dangerous content. The move, which could see X fined 6pc of annual turnover, was initiated under the powerful Digital Services Act. Mr Musk, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist”, has publicly goaded European Commissioner Thierry Breton over the issue.

X’s paid-for blue ticks and ‘Community Notes’ fact-checking system are also under investigation for “information manipulation” and “risks to civic discourse and electoral processes”.

Last month, X announced that it was opening its service up formally to pornography services.

X’s commercial performance has crashed since Mr Musk took over in 2022, with a majority of advertisers fleeing the platform due to hateful or racist content that the company has been slow to remove.