EU launches investigation against Elon Musk’s X for spreading fake news about Israel and Hamas
X may face a fine of more than 6% of annual revenue due to moderation issues.
Recently, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton asked X for clarification on the spread of disinformation about the war in Israel and called for stronger content moderation – in response, the social network’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said that a separate team was working on this, which has removed or flagged tens of thousands of fake posts and hundreds of accounts that supported Hamas attacks.
Breton, in turn, noted that some “authorities” had marked publications with disinformation with an X, but they still remained on the site.
“At the time of receiving your letter, we have not received any notifications from Europol regarding illegal content on the service,” X.
Currently, the European Commission is checking the company’s compliance with the new moderation rules, and the social network has to provide relevant information on its “crisis response protocol” by October 18 and other data by October 31. In the event of a proven violation, X could face a fine of more than 6% of the company’s annual revenue, as provided for by the new EU Digital Markets Act, which came into force in August (the rules require platforms with more than 45 million active users in the EU to quickly scan and remove illegal content from their services, as well as to describe their methodologies in detail).
Other social networks may have similar problems, as Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok owner ByteDance have received “happy letters” about moderation problems.
