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The European Union announced today that it is launching an investigation into X for allegedly spreading illegal content and misinformation, including terrorist and violent content and hate speech. The EU warned X for failing to crack down on illegal content on its platform following Saturday’s deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
This is the first investigation launched under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). According to the DSA, as a “very large online platform” X is obliged to mitigate the risks caused by disinformation and take action on reports of illegal content. Since the attacks, posts identified as false by fact-checkers have been circulated on X, purporting to show footage of attacks inside Israel and Israeli retaliation on targets in the Gaza Strip. These include footage filmed in Egypt last month and a clip that claims to show Hamas missile attacks on Israel but is actually from a video game.
Several employees overseeing content moderation at X, including its human rights team, were laid off during X’s mass layoffs last year, as part of Elon Musk’s bid to improve the platform’s profitability.
In his warning to Musk on Tuesday, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote that the EU has “indications” that X is being used to spread illegal content and misinformation in the EU and that Reminded of the need to control. He said that when the company receives notice about illegal content in the EU, it has to be “timely, diligent and purposeful” in removing the content and that the EU has the potential to be “sourced, from qualified sources.” Report about illegal content. Flags from the concerned authorities.”
The EU asked Musk to contact relevant law enforcement authorities and Europol, giving him a 24-hour deadline to respond to requests, including DSA compliance. Breton warned that an investigation could be launched and fines could be imposed.
In response to the warning, Thousands” of pieces were removed. Accounts associated with terrorist groups, violence or extremism. He also said the company formerly known as Twitter was responding to law enforcement requests, but had not received a request from Interpol at that time.
x said on your security account There have been more than 50 million posts globally over the past two days referencing the weekend terrorist attack, underscoring the scope of content generated. The Israeli military said that as of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,200 people had been killed in the Hamas attack, and the Gaza Health Ministry said at least 1,537 people had been killed in Gaza in Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Now that an investigation has begun, X has until October 18 to provide the EU with information about “the activation and functioning of X’s crisis response protocol”, and to respond to its other requests. There is time till 31st October. The EU can impose fines for disinformation and impose term penalties for failures to respond within its deadline. The EU is investigating X’s compliance with the DSA, including its policies on notices about illegal content, complaint management, risk assessment and what measures are being taken to mitigate identified risks.
Earlier this year, Musk distanced himself from the European Union’s code of practice on online disinformation. In a response, Breton said, “Twitter abandons the EU’s voluntary code of practice against disinformation. But liabilities remain. You can run but you can’t hide.”
TikTok and Meta have also been warned by the EU over disinformation, but in September, the EU said X was the worst for spreading disinformation.
