EU Investigates Elon Musk’s X for Spreading Illegal Content
The relationship between Elon Musk and the European Union deteriorated additional on Monday, with the bloc launching a proper investigation into the way in which X has been run because the billionaire took over final yr.
Senior officers from the European Commission stated they had been involved a couple of vary of recent options which have been added to X beneath Musk, in addition to the way in which violent content material associated to the Hamas assault on Israel was allowed to unfold with out persistently being labeled with a graphic content material warning.
EU officers additionally stated they might be investigating whether or not customers on the platform are being misled concerning the trustworthiness of people that pay for blue checkmarks—a characteristic that was beforehand reserved for verified customers comparable to celebrities, public figures, or journalists. Since Musk’s takeover, the platform has allotted blue checks to paying subscribers, a characteristic that researchers say has been leveraged to unfold scams and disinformation.
Another focus for the investigation is whether or not Community Notes—X’s crowdsourced fact-check program—can work in languages apart from English or intervene quick sufficient throughout elections.
Other considerations raised by the EU embody the way in which customers can notify X after they have seen unlawful content material and whether or not the platform is just too targeted on the English language in its content material moderation operations. X has greater than 2,000 English-speaking moderators, however just one Dutch-speaking moderator and one Polish moderator, in accordance with a tally the corporate launched final month.
With the investigation, X turns into the primary main platform to face a proper probe for violating guidelines included within the European Union’s new Digital Services Act, which has the facility to inform tech corporations to alter the way in which they function or advantageous them as much as 6 % of their international income. “Today’s opening of formal proceedings against X makes it clear that, with the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ has come to an end,” stated Thierry Breton, the EU’s inside markets commissioner. An in-depth investigation will now happen.
“X remains committed to complying with the Digital Services Act,” firm spokesperson Joe Benarroch instructed WIRED, including that the platform is cooperating with regulators. “It is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law.”
