European officials alerted X on Tuesday that it may have been posting false information and unlawful material about the conflict between Hamas and Israel, possibly in breach of the EU’s landmark content moderation regulation. X was formerly known as Twitter. Top European commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to X owner Elon Musk, stating that the firm has “very precise obligations regarding content moderation” and that the way it has handled the developing controversy thus far raises questions about its compliance.
If regulators determine that infractions have occurred, X, a platform subject to Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA), might be susceptible to billions in fines. X didn’t react to a comment request right away.
The letter of caution draws attention to X’s potentially significant legal exposure as it fights a wave of unfounded allegations connected to the war that have been attributed to everything from phoney White House press releases to fraudulent news stories, out-of-context videos from unrelated conflicts, or even video games.
Breton said in the letter, which he posted on X, that a lot of the objectionable content appeared to be a result of platform modifications made with Musk’s approval.
He cited, as an illustration, X’s weekend announcement that it was making it simpler for accounts to meet the requirements for newsworthiness exemption to its platform regulations.
Accounts no longer need to have 100,000 followers to qualify under X’s Public Interest Policy; they just need to be “high profile” accounts that, as previously, represent current or potential public figures, political parties, or political candidates.
It is “uncertain” what content, in particular “violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform,” will be taken down after the follower level was eliminated and replaced with a celebrity criteria, Breton wrote.
Breton said that corporations must respond quickly when officials point out content that contravenes European rules under the DSA, which became enforceable for major platforms in August. Breton suspected that X may not be following this requirement.
Breton stated, “Despite warnings from relevant authorities from credible sources, there have been concerns of potentially illegal content circulating on your platform.
The EU letter comes as conflict misinformation is still being extensively disseminated via X.
Musk also did away with the traditional verification badges that once assured users of an account’s authenticity and replaced them with a paid system that allows any user to receive a verification badge without undergoing an identity check in what he called an effort to discourage the creation of automated accounts. Misinformation specialists claim that the change made it harder for consumers to evaluate the reliability of any given report, especially during a breaking news event.
Musk, however, has directly added to the confusion by sharing – and later removing – a message encouraging followers to follow an account that has a history of disseminating false information, such as a bogus Pentagon explosion report earlier this year.
