Following Hamas’ attack on Israel, the EU is looking into Elon Musk’s X for potential terrorist and violent material as well as hate speech.
This inquiry, which is the first conducted in light of the EU’s new digital regulations, will also examine the complaints process.
The company X, formerly known as Twitter, announced that it has eliminated hundreds of accounts connected to Hamas off the network.
The EU has also issued warnings to TikTok and Meta for not taking adequate action to combat misinformation.
Disinformation regarding the battle between Israel and Hamas has been spreading on social media platforms, with doctored photographs and mislabelled videos.
Thierry Breton, EU’s industry chief, affirmed on Thursday that the Union had issued X a “formal request for information” to ensure if the social media platform was adhering to the Digital Services Act (DSA) – a law designed to protect users of big tech platforms which recently came into effect.
In response to a letter from Breton on Tuesday, X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino stated earlier on Thursday that the platform has banned hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken measures to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content after last Saturday’s incident.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation banned by the European Union.
1,300 people were killed and at least 150 were taken captives into Gaza during Hamas’s devastating strikes in Israel over the weekend. Food and water are running out in Gaza due to an Israeli siege, according to the UN World Food Programme, which has declared the situation there “dire”. Israel claims that until its hostages are released, the embargo will not stop.
Breton said in his letter to Musk that X had continued to host “violent and terrorist content” in spite of warnings. In the letter, Breton mentioned that there were several reports of “fake and manipulated images and facts” on the social media site, but he did not elaborate on the specific misinformation he was referring to.
Musk responded to X, saying, “Our policy is that everything is open and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.”
In the event that a corporation violates the DSA, there might be service suspension or fines from the EU equal to up to 6% of the company’s worldwide revenue.
X has until October 18 to give information about the activation and operation of its crisis response procedure, and until October 31 for other matters.
