EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. warned Elon Musk in a letter today that X, formerly Twitter, “is being used to spread illegal content and disinformation in the EU” following Hamas attacks in Israel. Breton also reminded Musk that the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in August, “establishes very precise obligations regarding content moderation.”
The commissioner wrote that illegal content flagged by “relevant authorities” was still on the site, meaning nothing had been done about it. The DSA, he noted, requires that X remove such content quickly and objectively. He added that Musk’s platform needs to have “proportionate and effective mitigation measures” to address the “risks to public safety and civic discourse” that resulted from disinformation.
Breton added that misleading images and facts of X are “widely reported” by the media and other organizations, listing examples such as old photographs from previous armed conflicts and video game footage.
EU regulators reprimanded Musk in late September over misinformation on the platform, with European Commissioner Věra Jourová saying then that the platform has the “highest misinformation/disinformation ratio” even compared to Facebook. Although Musk’s platform had departed from the EU Voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation, the DSA requires X and other “very large online platforms” to comply with guidelines similar to those set out in the code.
Commissioner Breton ended his letter by urging Musk to send a “prompt, accurate and complete response” to his request within the next 24 hours, adding that the response will be included in the EU DSA compliance file on X.
