BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – After numerous references to illegal and misleading posts about the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on the online service X, the EU Commission is demanding answers from the tech billionaire’s company Elon Musk. The Commission announced on Thursday in Brussels that compliance with the new EU digital law DSA is being investigated, among other things with a view to dealing with complaints.
X (formerly Twitter) now has until October 18th to answer questions about the activation and functionality of its crisis protocol and has until the end of the month to submit the remaining requested information. Based on the answers, the commission will decide on a formal procedure, it said. The agency also noted that it could impose penalties for incomplete or misleading answers.
After the Hamas attack on Israel, X users, online researchers and politicians reported posts with calls for violence and false information. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton had already called on X at the beginning of the week to review content control.
In a three-page answer on Wednesday evening (local time), X boss Linda Yaccarino listed the general platform rules and the corresponding measures taken by X against illegal content. She did not directly address the reports mentioned by Breton about the distribution of manipulated images and video game recordings that were passed off as real video recordings.
According to a new EU law – the Digital Services Act (DSA) – Facebook, X, Google and many others must take strict action against illegal content such as hate speech and hate speech online. In her response to Breton, Yaccarino repeated earlier statements that X had taken action against tens of thousands of posts since the weekend. Hundreds of accounts with connections to Hamas have also been removed./so/DP/stk