EU Opens Formal Probe Into X Over Content Related To Israel-Hamas War: Report – News18

The European Commission has formally opened an investigation into Elon Musk-owned X, over an alleged spreading of unlawful content material and disinformation, particularly the spreading of terrorist and violent content material and hate speech within the wake of an ongoing Israel-Hamas warfare.

The Commission mentioned late on Thursday that it has despatched a proper request for data to X below the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Following its designation as “Very Large Online Platform”, X is required to adjust to the total set of provisions launched by the DSA since late August, together with the evaluation and mitigation of dangers associated to the dissemination of unlawful content material, disinformation, gender-based violence, and any adverse results on the train of elementary rights, rights of the kid, public safety and psychological well-being.

“In this particular case, the Commission services are investigating X’s compliance with the DSA, including with regard to its policies and practices regarding notices on illegal content, complaint handling, risk assessment and measures to mitigate the risks identified,” mentioned the Commission.

X wants to offer the requested data to the Commission providers by October 18 for questions associated to the activation and functioning of the platform’s disaster response protocol, and by October 31 on the remaining.

“Based on the assessment of X replies, the Commission will assess next steps. This could entail the formal opening of proceedings pursuant to Article 66 of the DSA,” the Commission mentioned.

“In case of failure to reply by X, the Commission may decide to request the information by decision. In this case, failure to reply by the deadline could lead to the imposition of period penalties,” it added.

Earlier this week, EU commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk, saying that his X platform “is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU” after the October 7 Hamas assaults in Israel.

In a letter addressed to Musk, Breton mentioned that following the “terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel”, they’ve indications that “your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU”.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino on Thursday mentioned that the microblogging platform has eliminated tons of of “Hamas-linked accounts” and “taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” for the reason that assault on Israel.

(This story has been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated news company feed – IANS)