The European Union has deepened the investigation of Elon Musk-owned social community X it opened again in December, beneath the bloc’s on-line governance and content material moderation rulebook: the Digital Companies Act (DSA). Confirmed breaches of the regime could possibly be costly for Musk as enforcers are empowered to problem fines of as much as 6% of world annual turnover.
On Wednesday the Fee stated it has despatched X a proper request for data (RFI) beneath the DSA looking for extra particulars about points of the continued probe — which is wanting into considerations about unlawful content material dangers, manipulative design, shortcomings in adverts transparency and platform information entry for researchers.
The RFI additionally targets some contemporary considerations, with the EU saying it’s asking X about its content material moderation actions and sources in mild of its newest Transparency reporting (one other DSA requirement) — which reveals X has slashed the headcount of its content material moderation staff by nearly a fifth (20%) for the reason that earlier report, again in October 2023.
The report additionally revealed X has diminished linguistic protection of content material moderation throughout the EU from 11 official languages to seven — a specific bugbear for the Fee, which has raised the problem earlier than in longer standing efforts pressuring platforms to sort out content material harms.
One other contemporary EU concern pertains to X’s method to generative AI. The Fee stated it’s looking for additional particulars on “threat assessments and mitigation measures linked to the influence of generative AI instruments on electoral processes, dissemination of unlawful content material, and safety of elementary rights”.
X is regulated as a so-called very giant on-line platform (VLOP) beneath the DSA which suggests it’s topic to an extra layer of guidelines — overseen by the Fee itself — requiring it to evaluate and mitigate systemic dangers, reminiscent of in areas like disinformation.
“The request for data despatched at the moment is an additional step in an ongoing investigation,” the EU stated in a press launch. “It builds upon the proof gathering and evaluation carried out thus far, together with in relation to X’s Transparency report revealed in March 2024 and X’s replies to earlier requests for data, which addressed, amongst others, mitigation measures for dangers linked to generative AI.”
Again in March the Fee despatched a flurry of RFIs to a number of VLOPs, together with X, asking for more information on their method to dealing with dangers associated to using generative AI. The EU is worried concerning the position political deepfakes might play in upcoming elections to the European Parliament subsequent month.
The newest RFI to X offers the platform till Might 17 to supply responses to its questions on content material moderation sources and generative AI. It should get the opposite requested data to the Fee by Might 27.
X was contacted for a response to the event however at press time it had not offered remark.
Throughout a briefing with journalists final month a senior Fee official declined to supply a full replace on its investigation with X however characterised contacts with the corporate as “fairly intense”.
The official additionally confirmed one lively dialogue matter pertains to X’s Neighborhood Notes function, which crowdsources extra context to show on disputed posts — one thing X beneath Musk has framed as its essential method to content material moderation — including that it’s unclear whether or not the corporate’s method is sufficiently sturdy for responding to election dangers.
