EU probes Musk’s X over ‘illegal content’

THE European Union is looking into whether Elon Musk’s online platform Twitter/X breached tough new social media regulations in the first such investigation since the rules designed to make online content less toxic took effect.

“Today we open formal infringement proceedings against @X,” European commissioner

Thierry Breton said in a post on the platform.

Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the investigation will look into whether the platform failed to do enough to curb the spread of illegal content and whether measures to combat “information manipulation” was effective.

The EU will also examine whether X was transparent with researchers and will look into suspicions that its user interface, including for its blue check subscription service, has a “deceptive design”.

The company said in a statement: “X remains committed to complying with the Digital Services Act, and is co-operating with the regulatory process.

“It is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law. X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform, while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal.”

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a set of far-reaching rules designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that is either illegal, such as child sexual abuse or terrorism content, or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia.

EU officials have exhorted owner Musk (above), who bought the platform a year ago, to do more to clean it up, while the European Commission quizzed X over its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war after the conflict erupted.