Because of the wave of false or misleading information about Hamas terror, the EU has initiated proceedings against Elon Musk’s online service X. The Commission sets a deadline for the company.
After numerous indications of illegal and misleading contributions to the attack on Israel by the militant Islamist Hamas on the short message service X, the EU Commission has initiated proceedings against the company. The online service formerly known as Twitter is not doing enough to combat false information, criticized EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton today.
As a first step in the investigation, the commission sent a list of questions to X. The Brussels authorities gave tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company a deadline of next week: X must provide answers by October 18th, for example about its processes in the event of a crisis.
wave of Misinformation in the web
For the first time, the EU Commission is using the new possibilities of the stricter European digital laws. The so-called Digital Services Act (DSA) provides for severe penalties for a gross violation of the rules – up to six percent of global sales.
Following Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel, numerous false information and misleading images or videos have been spread online. According to observers, false reports and disinformation have increased significantly on the services X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Sequences from video games or videos recorded elsewhere are distributed.
Platforms must take action
Since this year, the DSA has required the largest social media platforms to combat misinformation and better protect minors. This should be done, for example, through closer cooperation with “trustworthy whistleblowers”, i.e. specialized institutions with special expertise in dealing with illegal content.
The DSA also provides for a crisis protocol that provides for measures in the event of war – if a particularly large amount of disinformation is spread in a short period of time. Since August of this year, the largest platforms have been required to fully implement the DSA.
50 million posts about terror against Israel
According to the nonprofit Media Matters, misleading videos about the Hamas attack have been viewed millions of times since October 7. X is considered an important source of real-time information, far more than other social networks.
X’s security team said in a post on Monday that the number of active users in the conflict area had increased in recent days. There were more than 50 million posts about Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel.
X boss replied with Platform rules
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton had already written to X this week asking him to take stricter action against illegal content. In a three-page response, X boss Linda Yaccarino listed the general platform rules and measures taken by X – which obviously did not satisfy the commission.
She did not address the reports mentioned by Breton about the distribution of manipulated images and recordings from video games. The EU Commission has now also reprimanded Facebook parent Meta and the short video platform TikTok and reminded them of compliance with their obligations.