The European Union has decided to investigate Social Site X. Fake information about the war between Israel and Hamas forces has been alleged to be published on the X platform. The EU announced on Monday that it will investigate Elon Musk’s company under the Digital Services Act for alleged violations of the law.
Unprecedented Investigation
This is the first investigation of its kind since the rules, which are intended to curtail harmful online content.
“It will investigate Commission X’s systems and policies that are suspected of violating these rules,” spokesman Johannes Bahrke told a news conference in Brussels. He further said, “Through this, no advance glimpse of the outcome of the investigation is being given.”
The EU will also examine whether X was sufficiently transparent to researchers. They will also look into X’s suspicions that the user interface design with its Blue Check subscription service is “confusing.”.
The company added, “It is important to ensure that the process is free from political influence and follows the law,” X added.
EU’s DSA act
The Union enacted the Digital Services Act(DAS) in November last year. The Act was brought in to deal with the illegal activities of social sites, online platforms and search engines and risks to public safety. DSA is a set of rules. They are designed to stop the spread of harmful online contents.
Big tech companies have faced scrutiny since the EU’s digital services law came into effect. X will be investigated under that law. Violators of the law face fines of up to 6 percent of worldwide revenue, which could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. It even provides for a ban from the EU.
Why does EU take this decision?
The EU industry Chief Thierry Breton sent letters to industries alike of X, Meta, TikTok and Alphabet reminding them of their obligations under the DSA to moderate harmful and illegal content.
On October 7, Hamas attacked Israel and they killed approximately 1,140 people, most of them civilians. As a result, Israel retaliated with heavy bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since October 7 has killed 18,800 Palestinians.
However, other online giant platforms responded by highlighting the steps taken to pause confusion of misleading information on their platforms, but Musk challenged the confusion allegations.
X’s new community feature allows users to comment on posts to flag false and sensitive content. According to a report submitted by ‘X’ in September, It supports Hamas attacks against Israel.
What will The EU follow in the investigation?
The Commission said that this activity will focus on the fight against the dissemination of illegal content in the European Union and the effectiveness of the measures taken to prevent the manipulation of information, in particular the “community notes” system.
It will focus on the measures taken to increase the transparency of X’s platform and a suspiciously deceptive design of the user interface, such as checkmarks linked to subscription products, the so-called blue checks.
The commission said it will now conduct an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority and will continue to gather evidence by sending additional requests for information, conducting interviews, and conducting inspections.
Only X received a formal request for information under the DSA.
“We will now launch an in-depth investigation into X’s compliance with the DSA obligations relating to the promotion and dissemination of illegal content and confusion in the European Union, platform transparency, and user interface design.” Breton said.
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