X-Ploitation: How X Became a Crossroads for Child Abuse and Influence Operations

During an ongoing investigation into illegal Russian influence operations on X, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) researchers discovered what seems to be a coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) network distributing “Child Sexual Assault Materials” (CSAM). The network can be observed hijacking hashtags, publishing explicit CSAM videos, and redirecting users to a wide range of other platforms. Due to the operation flooding hashtags, researchers chose to name it “Operation X-ploitation.”