Thierry Breton sent a letter to the head of Twitter regarding disinformation and illegal content on the social network, asking him to respond within 24 hours under threat of sanctions.
On Tuesday, October 10, the European Commission threatened the social network.
“Following the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, we have evidence that your platform is being used to spread illegal content and disinformation in the EU,” wrote Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton in a letter to Elon Musk consulted by AFP.
Asked for reaction by AFP, X did not immediately respond.
Humiliating videos of hostages, beheaded bodies, filmed attacks… Since the Hamas attacks on Saturday morning, social networks have been flooded with violent images but also with attempts at disinformation, posing a challenge for the platforms’ moderation teams.
“We have received reports from qualified sources about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite reports from the relevant authorities,” emphasized the EU Commissioner in his letter to Elon Musk on October 10th.
“Act quickly”
“If you receive reports of illegal content in the EU, you must act quickly, carefully and objectively and remove the content in question when justified,” he reminded.
This obligation arises in particular from the new European legislation on digital services (DSA), which has applied to 19 major platforms since the end of August.
After taking over Twitter last year, Elon Musk led a massive wave of layoffs that decimated its moderation teams. At the end of September, Brussels expressed concern about the rate of misinformation about X, citing poor results in tests on multiple platforms.
In addition, since last week, links and press articles shared on
Elon Musk himself has received a lot of criticism for telling his approximately 160 million followers on The billionaire then deleted his post, which, however, was viewed millions of times.
Thierry Breton reminded the American boss of “the very specific obligations” he has in terms of content moderation, still under the DSA.
“You must be extremely transparent and clear about the content permitted in your terms of service and consistently and diligently enforce your own policies,” the commissioner wrote.
“Violent and terrorist content”
“This is particularly important when it comes to violent and terrorist content that appears to be circulating on your platform,” he emphasized.
The commissioner also called on Elon Musk to “urgently” ensure that his systems are “effective” and to “inform Brussels of the crisis measures to be taken.”
“Given the urgency, I also expect you to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement authorities and (European police agency) Europol and to respond to their inquiries in a timely manner,” Thierry Breton continued.
“I request that you respond quickly, accurately and completely to this request within the next 24 hours,” he ordered. “I remind you that sanctions may be imposed following the possible initiation of an investigation and the finding of non-compliance,” he warned.
Experts also criticize Elon Musk for reinstating accounts to spread conspiracy theories and setting up a program to share advertising revenue with content creators, accusing him of increasing the number of clicks at the expense of the quality and veracity of the information disseminated to want.