In the aftermath of the Israel- Hamas war, the EU has formal opened a DSA investigation
The European Commission’s investigation of online platforms of alleged illegal content and disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel reopened after Musk’s outburst
The announcement follows an initial EU investigation that was opened against X in October, also citing concern that graphic illegal content and disinformation linked to Hamas’ attack on Israel was able to spread widely. Musk and Breton clashed publicly back then. In a series of posts on X, Musk accused Breton of carrying out backroom dealing, prompting Breton to use his account to promote X competitor BlueSky.
Senior officials from the European Commission are worried that a range of new features under Musk, along with violent content related to the attack on Israel, could be allowed to keep going without being tagged with a graphic warning.
The Commission has only begun formal proceedings under the DSA in the past. The EU will regulate very large online platforms in April of 2023. Alongside X, the list included 16 other platforms and two search engines including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Amazon, Google Search, and Apple’s App Store.
The time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care has been ended by the opening of formal proceedings against X, said the European Commissioner for internal markets.
The commission says that it may take interim enforcement action against X, but that is not a legal deadline.
The investigation is the beginning of a process where officials will carry out interviews and gather more evidence. “We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president for digital affairs in Europe.
Other concerns raised by the EU included the way users can notify X when they have seen illegal content and whether the platform is too focused on the English language in its content moderation operations. X has more than 2,000 English speaking moderators, compared to one Dutch-speaking moderator, and one Polish, according to a tally the company released last month.
Another focus for the investigation is whether Community Notes —X’s crowd-sourced fact check program—can work in languages other than English or intervene fast enough during elections.
The relationship between Elon Musk and the European Union deteriorated following Musk’s takeover of XMoscado
EU officials also said they would be investigating if users on the platform are being misled about the trustworthiness of people who pay for blue ticks—a feature that was previously reserved for verified users such as celebrities, public figures, or journalists. Since Musk’s takeover, the platform has allocated blue ticks to paying subscribers, a feature that researchers say have been leveraged to spread scams and disinformation.
The relationship between Elon Musk and the European Union further deteriorated Monday, with the bloc launching a formal investigation into the way X has been run since the billionaire took over last year.
