The European Union opens an investigation against X (formerly Twitter) for disinformation

by Foo Yun Chee and Sheila Dang

BRUSSELS/DALLAS (Reuters) – European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton opened an investigation on Thursday against X (formerly Twitter) accused of not having done enough to combat online disinformation following Hamas attacks in Israel.

Since the start of the clashes, a lot of content has been published on X, a platform owned by Elon Musk, as well as on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram (Meta).

The European Union wants to put pressure on social networks to remove all illegal content from their platforms and comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA) which came into force this summer and which must regulate the activities of social networks , in particular those of the American digital giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

Earlier, Thierry Breton had given Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew 24 hours to inform him of the measures taken by the social network to prevent the dissemination of false information since the attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel.

In a letter to Shou Zi Chew, which Reuters was able to consult, Thierry Breton sends a warning similar to that sent in recent days to Elon Musk, owner of Instagram.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said earlier that the social network had removed hundreds of accounts affiliated with Hamas, in response to the European commissioner’s missive.

“We have sent @X a formal request for information, the first step in our investigation to determine compliance with the DSA,” Thierry Breton wrote on X.

(French version Zhifan Liu)