The EU has publicly admonished Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, for allegedly failing to adequately address the spread of illegal content and disinformation on its platform, particularly in relation to the recent violent attacks on Israel orchestrated by Hamas terrorists.
TechCrunch reports that in a rapid and stringent application of the EU’s recently updated content moderation guidelines, X/Twitter, owned by tech mogul Elon Musk, has received a public warning for its alleged negligence in managing illegal content and disinformation. This comes in the wake of the recent attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip, which have not only stirred global political tensions but also sparked a flurry of content on social media platforms, some of which has been identified as disinformation.
Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against 🇱, we have indications of X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.
Urgent letter to @elonmusk on #DSA obligations ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/avMm1LHq54
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 10, 2023
Graphic videos and other content, some of which have been identified as false by fact-checkers and X/Twitter’s own community notes program, have been circulating on the platform since the onset of the attacks. Some posts purportedly show footage from the attacks inside Israel or Israel’s subsequent retaliation on targets in the Gaza Strip, while others have been identified as unrelated or entirely fabricated, including footage filmed last month in Egypt and even a clip from a video game, falsely claimed to show Hamas missile attacks on Israel.
The European Commission has raised alarms about the spread of disinformation on X, especially concerning the terrorist attacks and their aftermath. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes an obligation on X/Twitter, as a very large online platform, to mitigate risks associated with harmful falsehoods and to act diligently on reports of illegal content. An “urgent” letter to Musk from the EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, which was also shared on Musk’s platform, sends a clear message that the EU believes X/Twitter may be in breach of the DSA. Breton wrote, “When you receive notices of illegal content in the EU, you must be timely, diligent, and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content when warranted.”
Musk responded to Breton on his own platform, writing:
Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.
Please list the violations you allude to on , so that that the public can see them.
Merci beaucoup.
Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.
Please list the violations you allude to on , so that that the public can see them.
Merci beaucoup.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2023
Read more at TechCrunch here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.