The escalation in Gaza ignites a battle between the European Union and Elon Musk
On Tuesday, European Union Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton warned American billionaire Elon Musk of misleading information spread on the “X” platform he owns in the wake of the sudden attack launched by the “Hamas” movement on Israel.
“I therefore call on you to urgently ensure the effectiveness of your systems, and to report back to my team on the measures taken to confront this crisis,” Britton told Musk in a letter seen by Reuters. Britton reminded Musk that he needs "proportionate and effective measures to address the risks to public security and civil discourse caused by disinformation."
“Public media and civil society organizations are widely reporting on instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as old images repurposed from unrelated armed conflicts or military footage created from video games,” he added. He continued: “Let me remind you that the Digital Services Law sets out very precise obligations regarding content moderation.”
Britton told Musk to be very transparent and clear about what content is allowed
“First, you need to be very transparent and clear about what content is allowed under your terms and enforce your own policies consistently and diligently,” Britton explained in his strongly worded letter to Musk. “This is especially important when it comes to the violent and terrorist content that appears to be circulating on your platform.”
He stressed: “When you receive notifications about illegal content in the EU, you must be diligent, objective and timely in taking action and remove relevant content when necessary. We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content being circulated on “You persist despite the signals of the competent authorities.”
New laws of the European Union
Under new EU laws, social media companies must respond to complaints about illegal content within 24 hours. These companies can dispute user complaints, but there is an appeals process users can go through.
There are concerns in Brussels that X will not respond within 24 hours to complaints about misinformation or other illegal content such as hate speech within the required time. Britton asked Musk to "urgently ensure the effectiveness of your systems, and immediately report back to the European Union on the crisis measures it has taken."
0 Comments