An EU warning to Elon Musk regarding disinformation on the X social media platform he owns is stark.
It comes as the Israel-Hamas war has led to videos, stories spreading across the platform and may are unverified and simply false.
EU warning to Elon Musk
European Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote: “Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.
“Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.
“First, you need to be very transparent and clear on what content is permitted under your terms and consistently and diligently enforce your own policies.
“Second, when you receive notices of illegal content in the EU, you must be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content when warranted. We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities.
“Third, you need to have in place proportionate and effective mitigation measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse stemming from disinformation. Public media and civil society organisations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as repurposed old images or unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games.”
Musk responds
He wrote: “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on 𝕏, so that that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup.
“Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.
“Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup.”
Breton replied: “You are well aware of your users’ – and authorities’ – reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk.
“My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.”
Musk then replied: “We take our actions in the open. No back room deals. Please post your concerns explicitly on this platform.”
