Soon after terrorist group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Saturday (Oct. 7), Elon Musk tweeted, “Sorry to see what’s happening in Israel. I hope there can be peace one day.” Now, the EU wants the world’s richest man to do his part in abating the conflict.
In an Oct. 10 letter to the Tesla and SpaceX tycoon who bought X (formerly Twitter) last year, European Commission committee member Thierry Breton wrote that the microblogging platform “is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.” The bloc is demanding transparent and clear policies, “timely, diligent, and objective” review and removal of questionable content, and mitigation measures, such as taking down “repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games.”
The EU gave Musk 24 hours to “ensure a prompt, accurate and complete response” to its calls for compliance with the region’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
“I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed,” warned Breton, who visited X back in June and won a promise of compliance from Musk then.
Quotable: The EU versus Musk
Musk: “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on 𝕏, so that that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup.”
Breton: “Vu, merci. You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk. My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.”
A non-exhaustive list of how X claims to be fighting Hamas-related misinformation
🚫 People on X can control their exposure to sensitive media under “Content you see”
👋 Under its Violent and Hateful Entities Policy, X is removing newly created Hamas-affiliated accounts and working with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism “to try and prevent terrorist content from being distributed online.”
🕵 X, which has locked horns with antisemitic watchdog Anti-Defamation League, says it has provisions to “proactively monitor for antisemitic speech.”
📝 Controversial anti-fake news tool Community Notes, which lets users police content, is live and “new accounts are being enrolled in real time to propose and rate notes.” While X labels it “a critical tool for helping to combat potential misinformation,” experts don’t think this kind of crowdsourcing will be effective—especially because they need to be voted on and reach an “ideological consensus” before they’re made public.
Israel-Hamas posts on X, by the digits
50 million+: Posts on X globally focusing on the weekend’s terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, as per X’s Oct. 10 post.
Tens of thousands: Posts sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct that have been “actioned” by escalation teams.
Several hundred: Accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics that have been taken down.
8%: Share of 120 posts related to two prominent fake news stories—a fake White House news release claiming the Biden administration granted Israel $8 billion in emergency aid, and false reports that St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza was destroyed—that had published community notes, according to a Community Notes member’s account NBC was able to secure access to.
26%: Unpublished notes on posts about the two fake stories from volunteers that had yet to be approved.
67: Accounts that coordinated a false news campaign of inflammatory content related to the Israel-Hamas war, according to Alethea, a company that analyzes social media. Before the attack, the accounts had been posting tweets unrelated to the conflict region, but then began posting similar propaganda content. “It’s not clear if the accounts were created for the express purpose of posting the misinformation, or if they were hacked or sold,” NBC reported.