The European Fee mentioned on Friday it was stepping up its investigation into whether or not Elon Musk’s social media community X breached EU guidelines on content material moderation with requests for data and an order for it to retain related paperwork.
The Fee, which began its investigation towards X in December 2023, requested the corporate to offer by Feb. 15 inside documentation about its recommender system that makes content material solutions to customers, and any latest modifications made to it.
“Today we are taking further steps to shed light on the compliance of X’s recommender systems with the obligations under the DSA,” EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen mentioned in an announcement, referring to the European Union’s Digital Companies Act (DSA).
X didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Fee performed down reviews earlier this week that it was reviewing its investigations towards large tech firms, stressing that they’re persevering with as regular and President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White Home didn’t have an effect on its dedication to implementing its legal guidelines.
Trump, who takes over because the forty seventh president on Monday, has been crucial of assorted EU insurance policies. Bolstered by his stance, different CEOs, akin to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, have sought his assist to battle EU rules.
Meta final week scrapped its US fact-checking applications and Zuckerberg mentioned he would work with Trump to push again on censorship world wide, highlighting the rising variety of legal guidelines institutionalizing censorship in Europe.
X proprietor Musk, who’s an ally of Trump, has additionally repeatedly clashed with EU regulators, and riled mainstream European politicians by backing the far-right Various for Germany (AfD) in Germany’s election subsequent month, and endorsing Britain’s right-wing Reform celebration.
Some European politicians have accused Musk of meddling in elections, akin to along with his streamed dialog with the chief of AfD.
Musk has mentioned the criticism is an affront to democracy and free speech.
The Fee has mentioned Musk is free to talk his thoughts and might maintain stay streams with politicians however is assessing whether or not algorithms enhance a single narrative and “shadow-ban” different views, so posing a danger to truthful elections.
The controversy on free speech has put a give attention to the EU’s DSA, which is meant to handle unlawful content material akin to hate speech and election interference.
The Fee issued a “retention order” requiring X to maintain inside paperwork and knowledge on future modifications to the design and functioning of its recommender algorithms for the interval from Jan. 17 to the top of 2025.
It additionally requested entry to sure of X’s technical interfaces to its content material that may enable direct fact-finding on content material moderation and virality of accounts.
“These steps will allow the Commission services to take all relevant facts into account in the complex assessment under the DSA of systemic risks and their mitigation,” the Fee mentioned.
