Users demand X cut ties with Israeli verification company AU10TIX
Users demand X cut ties with Israeli verification company AU10TIX
According to users, the information the company receives reaches Israel's intelligence services. Elon Musk did not reject the demand and promised to investigate the matter, even though he chose to continue to work with the company after previous claims on the matter.
Anti-Israeli users on X (formerly Twitter) are pressuring the platform to sever its ties with the identity verification company AU10TIX, claiming that the information it receives from users will end up in the hands of Israel's intelligence services. Controlling owner of X, Elon Musk, did not reject the demand outright and instead promised to investigate the issue.
AU10TIX, which is controlled by brothers Ron and Gil Atzmon, is a subsidiary of ICTS. Since 2015, AU10TIX has been developing a biometric system that helps detect fake or stolen identities among users of online services. "Sometimes the same identity can appear in several countries at a given time. This can prove identity theft because the identities are often real, but the details—such as the address, the picture, and the name—appear in several different profiles," Ron Atzmon previously explained in an interview with Calcalist.
AU10TIX's clients include some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Airbnb, Bird, PayPal, LinkedIn, and Fiverr. X has been among the company's clients for nearly four years and is one of its ten largest clients. At the end of May, X announced that as of July 1, any creator who wishes to monetize their activity on the platform is obligated to verify their identity through the AU10TIX system. This message ignited a storm of anti-Israel sentiment centered on AU10TIX.
This is not the first time that AU10TIX has been at the heart of this kind of storm. Last year, a similar storm arose, which, among other things, was also addressed on the website of the Qatari Al-Jazeera network. However, this time the rant against the Israeli company takes on a more threatening tone. In response to one of the posts on the subject, Elon Musk replied, "We investigate," he promised.
Musk's statement can be interpreted as an attempt to silence the discussion on the issue by appeasing the attackers, but in practice it gives validity to their claims and strengthens them. Musk is very familiar with the activities of AU10TIX, and was involved in the decision to keep the company as a supplier of X after purchasing the platform. His treatment of the claims, without rejecting them outright and making it clear that there is no truth in them, only strengthens them and raises the fear that Musk will act to satisfy the anti-Israel users and stop the engagement with AU10TIX.
This move will have devastating potential not only for the company but for all Israeli companies that deal with cyber protection and information security issues, as it will make them all suspicious and may ignite an extensive campaign to stop contracting with them on the part of large technology companies.
X has not yet contacted the company on the matter, and AU10TIX estimates that the storm will not have an impact on its business activities. In the company's estimation, this is a storm of the kind that has arisen from time to time, centered on lies devoid of serious content, and hope that in this case too, it will soon pass.
AU10TIX said in response to Calcalist: "AU10TIX is committed to all international privacy standards and does not transfer details to any third party. This has always been the case and always will be."
