X and the EU have a back-and-forth between the CEO and the CEO of a large online platform, Meta, and Breton
The letter from X’s CEO struck a diplomatic tone, but Musk himself has pushed the commissioner to list specific violations on the platform publicly. Musk said that their actions were in the open. There were no back room deals.
The pair then engaged in a brief but public exchange. Breton gave Musk a 24-hour deadline to respond; Musk told Breton to provide more details publicly. He said that his people would be in touch. The billionaire denied that there was backroom deals. Breton sent his followers to join him on Bluesky after he posted on X.
The back-and-forth between X and the European Union comes as the EU implements the DSA, which imposes obligations on large online platforms to remove illegal content and mitigate risks to public security more generally. Breton has sent letters to both Meta and X, reminding them of their obligations under the DSA.
“Breton is a politician, eager to keep himself in the press cycle for as long as possible in the run-up to the elections,” says a well-placed source in Brussels, who asks to be anonymous because they work closely with Breton’s team.
We now wait for the EU’s response. There are consequences for failing to comply with the DSA, such as an investigation and possible fines.
X is Fighting War-Radiation on Social Media: A Letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Shou Zi Chew
Video game footage was shared as if it was depictions of the Middle East; false claims about an Israeli commander being kidnapped, and a White House memo were all false.
Yaccarino’s letter also emphasizes how X has been using Community Notes in an attempt to combat misinformation on its platform, noting that over 700 unique notes are being shown on the platform relating to the attacks. But a report from NBC News has shed light on the strain the volunteer-powered system is under, with some community notes taking hours or even days to be approved, and other posts failing to be labeled at all.
A top European Union official has fired off letters to top social media executives Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Shou Zi Chew over the flood of misinformation on their platforms related to the Israel-Hamas war, warning that EU laws can impose severe financial penalties if the spread of falsehoods goes unchecked.
Breton gave Meta’s chief executive 24 hours to come up with a plan to fight the tide of war-related misinformation and fake postings on the platform.
The EU, Breton wrote to Zuckerberg, has “been made aware of reports of a significant number of deep fakes and manipulated content which circulated on your platforms and a few still appear online.”
“X is assessing and addressing fake and manipulated content during this crisis, which is constantly evolving and changing,” Yaccarino wrote in her letter to Breton. “We’ve taken proactive actions to remove any content that violates our policies, including violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media.”
Musk made changes to the platform’s verification policies last year. A blue check mark, previously reserved for credible news organizations and notable people, is now available for anyone willing to pay a monthly fee. A paid-for verification mark has helped boost the reach of posts and has caused chaos on the site, according to misinformation experts.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to protect the Internet from a terrorist organisation or extremist group using a “special operations center”
The swift response comes in the face of the EU’s Digital Services Act, one of the toughest online safety laws in the world. The law carries stiff fees for tech companies that violate the rules.
The law requires that social media platforms remove any posts that inciting violence or feature manipulated media seen as propaganda or hate speech, or they will be hit with financial penalties that are far in excess of what U.S. authority has ever imposed.
“There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts,” Yaccarino wrote.
A Meta spokesman said since the war broke out the company established a “special operations center” with Hebrew and Arabic speakers to closely monitor and tackle misinformation across its social media sites.
The risk of fake and manipulated images and facts being used to influence elections is taken very seriously by the DSA according to a letter sent to Facebook’s founder.