The European Comission announced this Thursday the opening of a investigation on disinformation spread and violent content on the X network related to the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. In a statement, the Commission (executive arm of the European Union, EU) reported that it is investigating the compliance of X (formerly Twitter) with the new Digital Services Lawwhich regulates the actions of digital platforms in the European bloc.
The note mentions the receipt of indications “relative to the alleged transmission of illicit content” in X after the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on Saturday. Thus the Commission formally presented to 40 pages containing specific questions about the operation of the platform.
With these tools, the Commission intends to determine whether disinformation dissemination about what happened on Saturday in the territory of Israel. According to the statement, the Commission now has legal powers “to demand more information from X, to verify the correct implementation” of the Digital Services Law.
Letter to Musk
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The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, had sent on Tuesday a letter to the owner of X, Elon Musk, to warn him about the spread of misinformation on the platform. In that same letter, Breton granted Musk a within 24 hours to detail the measures taken at X to stop the dissemination of violent images, disinformation and illegal content.
Now, X has until October 18 (Wednesday of next week) to respond to the most urgent questions, and until October 31 for less pressing information.