The European Commission announces that it is opening a formal investigation into X (Twitter) to determine whether it has breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). In question, content moderation, “dark patterns”, advertising transparency and even access to data for researchers.
The social network X (Twitter) is in turmoil for the umpteenth time. After a preliminary investigation opened last October, the European Commission is today opening a “ formal investigation » about X.
What is the European Commission investigating?
The answer can be found in the press release published today by the institution. This mainly involves assessing whether or not X has complied with the Digital Services Act (DSA), new European legislation for digital platforms, which came into force on August 25. This opening of an investigation does not mean that X has failed to fulfill its obligations. This is the first time that the European Commission has used this procedure within the framework of the DSA, less than four months after its entry into force. For the moment, no deadline for conclusion has been given, as this provision is not included in the DSA.
This concerns more particularly “ the fight against the dissemination of illegal content in the EU “, but also ” risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted » as well as the operation of the processing of reports by the social network concerning this content.
This also concerns the measures taken by against the manipulation of information “. The Commission says it wants to look into “ Community Notes » and their effectiveness. As a reminder, this is a feature allowing certain members of X to add context to a tweet that is necessarily displayed. A fairly controversial feature because of its unclear operation and which can be manipulated.
Speaking of transparency, the formal investigation will also look into researchers’ access to X’s data, including its algorithm, or even the submission of ads (controls of the ads that are displayed). X is also accused of being designed in a misleading way: the processes for awarding “verification” badges (the blue dots) could be judged as not being strong enough.
Why is X (Twitter) in this procedure?
If X (Twitter) can be under the yoke of this investigation, it is first of all because of its status. Last April, the social network bought by Elon Musk was designated as a “ very large online platform » (from the English acronym VLOP). Indeed, with its 112 million active users, it exceeds the threshold of 45 million set by the Digital Services Act. Unlike smaller social networks, X must comply with stricter obligations. This concerns its design, the assessment of the risks of dissemination of illicit content, its recommendation algorithms, the information of moderation decisions, etc.
More precisely, last October, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Digital Affairs Thierry Breton rebutted X. He accused the social network of allowing disinformation to spread regarding the war between Israel and Hamas. Furthermore, X would not be responsive enough in its moderation of propaganda and horror images and videos following the terrorist attacks that took place in Israel on October 7.
Sanctions that could be taken against X (Twitter)
During this procedure, the European Commission may take certain decisions, including “ non-compliance decisions “. However, it can consider “ any commitment made by X to remedy the problems which are the subject of the procedure. » During the investigation, if the Commission considers it necessary, it may take provisional measures which may be “ changes to recommendation systems, increased monitoring of specific keywords or hashtags, or orders to stop or remedy alleged violations. »
In the event that X (Twitter) does not cooperate sufficiently during the investigation with the Commission, the latter could impose fines of up to 1% of its annual global turnover. Furthermore, for each day of delay in a response, it can inflict “ penalties of up to 5% of average daily turnover worldwide “.
If, following the formal investigation, the Commission establishes a violation of the Digital Services Act by X, various sanctions may be imposed. The most significant would be a fine of up to 6% of the social network’s global annual turnover. A sanction ” ordering this supplier to take measures to remedy this failure within the Commission’s deadline », recalls the latter. In this case, X would have every right to request an appeal before a European court. The social network’s revenue was $4.14 billion in 2022, reported The gallery. Assuming that the 2023 financial year would be the same amount, this would make a maximum fine of around $248 million, or a little over €227 million at current prices. However, given the succession of controversies facing the social network, we expect its turnover to continue to plummet in 2023. As a last resort, the Commission could temporarily suspend the social network.