Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Elon Musk’s X social platform (formerly known as Twitter) is coming under new scrutiny by the European Union under new rules set by the Digital Services Act regarding illegal and harmful content. The EU’s probe will demand information on X’s content moderation resources following a report that revealed the moderation team staff had been thinned out.
The EU released a statement on its probe against X, as recently reported by CNBC. According to the statement, the European Commission has requested information from X regarding its content moderation resources under the provisions of the Digital Services Act which, along with the Digital Markets Act, has been part of the EU’s initiative to crack down on big tech and violations of consumer and market protections. The probe concerns a March 2024 transparency report in which X revealed it had cut 20 percent of its content moderation team in comparison to a similar report in October 2023. X had also reportedly reduced linguistic coverage of regions in the EU down from 11 to seven languages.
Where the Digital Markets Act mostly polices large companies on their storefronts, including fair pricing, gatekeepers sellers, and monopolizing tech markets such as mobile app development and distribution, the Digital Services Act focuses on policing harmful or illegal content across tech markets such as social media. In this regard, the EU has demanded further details from X regarding its content moderation resources, including risk assessments and mitigation measure especially in relation to affect on electoral processes, identification and curtailing of illegal behaviour, and fundamental rights protection of users.
X has not responded to the probe at this time, but given how aggressively the EU has gone about enforcing the DMA in matters such as Epic Games’ developer account on iOS, it seems likely X could see similar levels of scrutiny and action. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further news and updates.