The European Commisson has launched a probe into X (formerly Twitter) – the first under new EU tech rules – over allegations the platform was spreading disinformation about the Hamas-Israel war.
EU industry chief Thierry Breton announced the investigation on Thursday, having also reprimanded social media platforms TikTok and Meta this week for disinformation.
All three platforms have seen a surge in false and misleading reports since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October.
X, TikTok and Meta are under pressure to remove illegal and harmful content from their platforms in compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in the EU in November last year.
The Act forces very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal content and risks to public security, and protect their services against manipulative techniques.
"We have sent @X a formal request for information, a first step in our investigation to determine compliance with the DSA," Breton said in a posting on X on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the attack, responding to a letter Breton sent X on Tuesday.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, said in a post on Friday that the EU "still haven’t provided any examples of disinformation".
Researchers say a move by Musk to cut off free academic access to a data tool earlier this year is making it harder to track keywords and hashtags, forcing them to manually sift through content to trace disinformation.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has slashed the workforce to cut costs, including many who worked on content moderation, identifying and taking down coordinated propaganda campaigns and curating reliable content.
(with Reuters)
