BRUSSELS: The European Commission said on Thursday it is opening an investigation into Elon Musk’s X social media platform to determine if it has allowed the spread of disinformation around the Gaza-Israel conflict.

The commission said it had sent a formal request for information to X in what is a first procedure launched under EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA), two days after it sent a warning letter from Commissioner Thierry Breton.

Earlier, Elon Musk’s social media platform defended itself against accusations from the European Union that it is failing to tackle disinformation around the Middle East conflict.

Linda Yaccarino, the firm’s CEO, wrote that the platform had “taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” and removed hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas.

She addressed the letter, dated Wednesday, to EU industry commissioner and self-styled “digital enforcer” Thierry Breton, who had traded barbs with Musk on social media after accusing the platform of allowing “violent and terrorist content” to circulate.

Breton has sent similar letters of alarm to Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Facebook parent Meta, and on Thursday to TikTok and its CEO Shou Zi Chew.

In each case, Breton gave the platforms 24 hours to get back to him with details of what they are doing to crack down on “illegal content and disinformation” reportedly circulating in posts.

X is especially fixed in Brussels’ crosshairs because Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last year, has gutted its staff, including content moderators, in a bid to save money.

Young TikTok users at risk

Yaccarino’s response letter to Breton, reposted by the CEO on her X account, said the firm had taken down posts that involved “violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media”.

She said that more than 700 notes were added to posts in the first four days after Saturday’s raid, and they were seen tens of millions of times.

The European Commission said it had received the letter and was deciding its next steps.

In his letter to TikTok, Breton stressed that its users, who are mainly young, were especially vulnerable to fake and manipulated information.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2023