The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is being investigated for allegedly breaking EU law on disinformation, illegal content and transparency, the European Commission has announced, The Guardian reported.
The decision to launch formal infringement proceedings against the company, owned by the US billionaire Elon Musk, comes weeks after X was asked to provide evidence compliance with new laws designed to eliminate hate speech, racism, and fake news from platforms in the EU.
Under the Digital Services Act, which came into force in August, a company can be fined 6% of its global income or be banned from operating across the EU if it is found to have breached the law.
The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.
On the basis of the preliminary investigation conducted so far, including on the basis of an analysis of the risk assessment report submitted by X in September’s Transparency report published in 3 November, and X’s replies to a former request for information, which, among others, concerned the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel, the Commission decided to open formal infringement proceedings against X under the Digital Services Act.
The proceedings will focus on the following areas:
The compliance with the DSA obligations to countering dissemination of illegal content in the EU, notably in relation to the risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to counter the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, as well as the functioning of the notice and action mechanism for illegal content in the EU mandate by the DSA, including in light of X’s content moderation resources.
The effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform, notably the effectiveness of X’s so-called ‘Community Notes’ system in the EU and the effectiveness of related policies mitigating risks to civic discourse and electoral processes.
The measures taken by X to increase the transparency of its platform. The investigation concerns suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to X’s publicly accessible data as mandated by Article 40 of the DSA, as well as its shortcomings in X’s ads repository.
A suspected deceptive design of the user interface, notably in relation to checkmarks linked to certain subscription products, the so-called Blue checks.
CNBC reported that the European Union has opened infringement proceedings into social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, over suspected failure to combat content disinformation and manipulation.
According to CNBC, it is the first probe under the Digital Services Act.
The bloc’s regulator, Thierry Breton said Monday that the move is in response to suspected breaches of X’s transparency obligations and its duties to counter illegal content and disinformation. It is also in response to what the EU calls a “deceptive” design of the user interface, relating to its so-called blue checks.
In my opinion, I am certain that the European Commission will push forward with its investigation of X, formerly known as Twitter. We will have to wait and see how this proceeding turns out.