EU Announces Formal Investigation Into X Just Hours After Linda Yaccarino Details Response To Israel-Hamas Conflict Disinformation Surge
deadline.comThe European Commission has sent a formal request to Elon Musk’s X requesting information on the social media platform’s provisions to deal with illegal content, disinformation and abusive material posted on the site in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton, who announced the move on his X account on Thursday, said it marked the first step in an investigation to determine X’s compliance with the European Union‘s Digital Services Act (DSA). “The DSA is here to protect both freedom of expression & our democracies — including in times of crisis,” wrote Breton.
The request comes just two days after Breton first wrote to Musk warning him about a proliferation of disinformation and abusive content on X in the wake of Saturday’s deadly attack on Israel and gave him 24 hours to deal with it.
Breton warned that failure to act would constitute a breach of the DSA and could result in sanctions. Earlier on Thursday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a two-page response to Breton’s letter on the platform’s Global Government Affairs handle and said that X had taken action on “tens of thousands of pieces of content.” Breton has also publicly sent similar warning letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in the last two days, but no formal probes have been announced as yet.
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