On Monday, December 18, the Commission announced the opening of its first “formal investigation” as part of the new community legislation on digital services (DSA), which entered into force in August 2023. Unsurprisingly, given the multiple calls to order addressed by the Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, regarding content hateful or misleading messages circulating on X, formerly Twitter, it is the social network which is the subject. This dispute, which pits Brussels against the owner of X, Elon Musk, represents a major test for the European regulation supposed to govern content moderation practices on major platforms.
“The days when large online platforms behaved as if they were too big to care about the rules are over”repeated Thierry Breton on Monday, who decided to take the lead in this matter and therefore also plays part of his credibility there. “X may not have done enough to prevent the spread of illegal content and misinformation”added, still on X, Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner. “I welcome the opening of this investigation against Twitter/X”, added, in France, the minister responsible for digital affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, for whom the Europeans “intend to ensure respect” their rules.
This procedure serves as an example for the text imposing obligations of means and transparency on their policy to combat problematic content on nineteen platforms with more than 45 million users: other preliminary investigations have been carried out. opened on behalf of the DSA against Apple, Google, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Amazon, but X is the only one to be the subject of a formal investigation.
A certain distrust
As soon as the negotiation of the European regulation, adopted in October 2022, ended, the prospect of the takeover of Twitter by the American billionaire boss of Tesla was invoked by certain legislators as an illustration of the need to regulate social networks. Since then, while the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts have sparked an increase in misleading and violent content, Thierry Breton and Brussels have clearly tried to gradually establish a balance of power with the platform: ordered on October 7 to comply at the DSA within 24 hours, X was subsequently targeted by a preliminary investigation linked to the circulation of “fake news”, “violent and terrorist content” and “hate speech”.
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