Although “X” has not yet been convicted, the European Commission, which now plays the role of the body regulating the digital sector, expresses concern about the methods used to identify dangerous publications and withdraw them.
The list of alleged violations is long and will be closely scrutinized, including low numbers of content moderators, ineffective reporting of illegal content, insufficient warning messages about violent images, and lack of access to X data by regulatory bodies.
The list also includes blue verification marks placed on certain accounts, which potentially mislead Internet users into believing that information posted through these accounts is trustworthy, or notes added by the user community to reformulate the information, but these appear to be very limited in some languages.
European Commissioner for Digital Affairs, Thierry Breton, said, “Gone are the days when large digital platforms behaved as if they were too big to abide by the rules,” stressing that the new legislation allows “the protection of our citizens and our democracies.”
X said on Monday that it remains “committed to complying with the rules,” promising cooperation in this field.
She stressed in a message she posted on the platform that “it is important that this process remain free of any political influence.”
The EU Digital Services Act does not define the concept of illegal content, which is largely determined by national laws or other European texts.
But it imposes compliance with a series of obligations, such as moving “immediately” to remove content reported as illegal or comments from users who regularly challenge prohibitions.
On October 12, the European Commission announced the opening of a preliminary procedure regarding the spread of “false information,” “violent and terrorist content,” and “hate speech,” against the social network owned by billionaire Elon Musk, five days after the Hamas movement launched attacks on Israel on the 7th. Same month.
This first step included requesting information to verify the “X” platform’s compliance with legal obligations.
However, the responses provided by the American company, as well as the “transparency report” that it published at the beginning of November, to evaluate the means of supervision that it applies to content, did not convince the European executive authority, which now has supervisory powers and powers that enable it to impose sanctions.
European legislation stipulates the imposition of fines of up to 6 percent of the global sales volume of the group in question.
In the event of serious and repeated violations, the platform could be banned from operating in the European Union.
With the activation of the “official” procedure, the European Commission explained on Monday that it would continue to “collect evidence” by requesting new information from “X”, or conducting interviews or inspections.
This procedure now allows the Commission to take measures to force “X” to comply with the rules, or accept the corrective steps proposed by the platform to respond to concerns.
No deadline has been set for the completion of the ongoing investigation.
Thierry Breton confirmed that the investigations will focus in particular on “the dissemination and amplification of illegal content and disinformation in the European Union.”
The new legislation has enabled the European Commission to tighten its policies aimed at making large platforms comply with European Union obligations in terms of content moderation, but also in the field of online commerce.
Various preliminary investigations have already been opened on various topics dealing with major groups such as Apple, Google, Meta (particularly the owner of Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube or Amazon, within the framework of the European Union Digital Services Law.
But the action launched Monday against X is unprecedented, and highlights the European Commission's specific concerns about the platform.
At the end of September, the Commission expressed concern about the large proportion of misleading information on “X,” speaking about the poor results that the platform showed in particular during tests conducted on several social networks.
After purchasing Twitter last year, Elon Musk fired a large number of employees, which led to a strong decline in the number of workers in the content moderation teams.
Musk regularly emphasizes his vision of freedom of expression free of any “censorship,” despite emphasizing his respect for the laws of each country.
In November, the European Commission asked its services to suspend their advertising campaigns on X, a measure that was also justified by the “worrying increase in disinformation and hate speech” on the platform.
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