A European regulator on Tuesday, Oct. 10, issued Elon Musk a strict warning about the spread of illegal content and so-called "misinformation" on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) about the Israel-Palestine war.
Musk was also told that failure to comply with European regulations concerning the illegal content could result in fines worth at least six percent of a company's annual revenue.
In the letter addressed to Musk, Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, said his office has "indications" that groups are spreading misinformation and "violent and terrorist" content on X. He gave Musk 24 hours to respond.
The letter, which Breton also posted on X, comes after several researchers, news organizations and other groups have recorded a rise of misleading, false and questionable content on the social media app, in turn prompting confusion about the current conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Breton also included a hashtag referring to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the newly enacted legislation by the European Commission that requires platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union (EU) to "monitor for and take down illegal content," as well as specify their protocols for doing so.
In the letter, Breton also reminded Musk that the DSA "sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation," and that X must be very transparent on what content is permitted under Musk's terms and "consistently and diligently enforce" his own policies.
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According to Breton, the recent "changes in public interest policies" have confused many European users. He seemed to be alluding to a change that X recently made to its public interest policy that influences whether the company decides to "leave certain posts available for everyone to see despite the messages violating policy rules."
According to the letter, several public media and civil society organizations "widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating" on the social media platform in the EU, including repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that was taken from video games.
"This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information," warned Breton. He added that Musk should make sure that X's systems are effective and that the billionaire must "report on the crisis measures taken" to Breton's team.
Breton also warned that he expects Musk's X to contact the relevant law enforcement authorities and Europol, and that the latter responds "promptly to their requests."
"I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed," Breton concluded.
EU sends X a legally binding request for information
On Friday, Oct. 13, the European Commission submitted a formal, legally binding request for information from X over its poor handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Palestine war.
This is the first step in what could become the EU's inaugural investigation under the DSA, in this case, to determine if X complies with the strict new rules meant to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content.
X has until Oct. 18 to respond to questions related to how its crisis response protocol is functioning. According to the formal request, responses to other questions must be submitted by Oct. 31.
The commission said its next steps, which could include the opening of formal proceedings and penalties, would be determined by X's replies.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said earlier that the social media website has removed hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas and taken down or labeled tens of thousands of posts since the militant group's attack on Israel.
Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the investigative collective Bellingcat, said that while X's actions are better than nothing, it is not enough to resolve the misinformation problem on X.
Koltai, who previously worked at Twitter on Community Notes, also warned that there is still "an overwhelming amount of misinformation" on X. From what researchers have seen, the moderation efforts from X are "only addressing a drop in the bucket."
Go to WWIII.news for more news related to the ongoing Israel-Palestine war.
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