The EU has ordered Elon Musk to remove disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict from X (formerly Twitter) within 24 hours or risk being fined.
In a letter to Musk, EU commissioner Thierry Breton urged X to fall in line with the bloc’s sweeping new laws on fake news. The platform must be transparent about permissible content, hastily remove infringing posts — particularly terrorist and violent material — and effectively deal with disinformation, Mr Breton wrote.
A war of words promptly ensued between Mr Musk and Mr Breton on the social media platform. The X owner responded by asking the EU commissioner to “list the violations on X” for the public to view.
Mr Breton replied that Mr Musk was “well aware” of the “reports on fake content and glorification of violence on X”, and must “demonstrate that you walk the talk”.
X’s flawed approach to tackling fake news has attracted intense scrutiny since the outbreak of violence in Israel on October 7.
The platform is flooded with bogus reports and misleading videos, including false accounts of the Israeli PM being taken to hospital, clips of buildings collapsing in Syria that were said to be in Gaza, and a doctored document about US aid to Israel. Researchers have claimed that the content can easily be found through a simple search on X.
Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against 🇮🇱, we have indications of X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 10, 2023
Urgent letter to @elonmusk on #DSA obligations ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/avMm1LHq54
Pointing to the claims of false and altered posts, Mr Breton wrote: “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 of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games.”
The outbreak of war in Israel has put further strain on X’s already fraught relationship with the EU. Last month, the bloc issued a warning to X after it was found to have the highest rate of disinformation among the major social media platforms.
Under the EU’s recently passed Digital Services Act, platforms can be fined up to six per cent of annual turnover if they fail to swiftly tackle fake news. They can also face daily penalties of up to five per cent of their average daily income or worldwide annual turnover.
The spiralling violence in Israel and Gaza is causing ramifications for X. The company appears to be in crisis mode: CEO Linda Yaccarino has cancelled a pair of public appearances to focus on the influx of content on the platform since the outbreak of war. However, there are rumblings that those cancellations are in fact due to the fallout from a disastrous interview in which Yaccarino was quizzed about Musk’s erratic leadership.
Twitter has always been a hive for breaking news, particularly during major world events. But questions are now being asked about the impact of Musk’s cost-cutting measures on X.
The billionaire — and most-followed person on X — gutted the company’s workforce after acquiring it in October. The widespread layoffs also included an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other safety checks.
A recent report by business news site The Information claimed that X stopped using a software tool designed to flag organised misinformation.
Adding to the chaos, Musk opened up verification to anyone willing to pay a monthly subscription earlier this year. As a result, the blue checkmarks previously used by Twitter to indicate authenticity and credibility lost all meaning, and allowed anyone to boost their visibility on the platform.
In a post on Monday (October 9), X said it removed newly created accounts affiliated with the Islamist group Hamas and had “actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct”.
It did not reveal the actions it took on the posts, which can either be removed or have their visibility reduced by the company. X told Reuters that more than 500 unique Community Notes, a feature that lets users fact-check potentially misleading content, have been posted about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a surprise attack on Saturday (October 7), Hamas militants killed hundreds of people and took civilians captive in an unprecedented assault on Israel. The Israeli army responded by carrying out airstrikes on Gaza that have killed at least 1,000 Palestinian gunmen, and 900 people, including 260 children.
