With a spike in disinformation on the Israel-Hamas conflict challenging social media platforms and EU institutions tasked with enforcing new content moderation standards, some politicians are considering moving to different platforms.
Since the Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcement on 25 August, 19 designated ‘very large online platforms’ are responsible for moderating illegal content online when flagged by users.
In the wake of the attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October – which has seen a rapid proliferation of disinformation online – Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton published an open letter to Facebook, Instagram and X.
“We are seeing a surge of illegal content and disinformation being disseminated in the EU via certain platforms,” he wrote in the letter addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
To Elon Musk, CEO of X, Breton said: “We have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.”
In both letters, Breton urges Facebook, Instagram, and X to comply with the DSA rules, diligently take down illegal content once flagged by users, and contact law enforcement authorities and Europol, the EU police authority.
He gave all companies 24 hours “to ensure a prompt, accurate and complete response” to his requests.
In a move that some could describe as voting with his feet, Breton also decided on Wednesday (11 October) to advertise his account on the new social media platform Bluesky, much touted as a rival to X.
About the platform and the former logo of Twitter – a blue bird – he wrote, “even though the grass is not (always) greener on the other side, the sky is sometimes… bluer”.
Many German politicians have started to move to Bluesky after Musk supported the German anti-migrant and far-right party AfD.
Hamas-Israel conflict sees surge in disinformation
As debunked by CNN, one video, watched more than half a million times on X, misinforms people by showing Hamas combatants shooting down an Israeli helicopter when the images used come from a video game called Arma 3.
AFP also debunked several other fake videos circulating on YouTube, Facebook and X.
The Czech company Bohemia Interactive, who produced the Arma 3 game, acknowledged the “recent circulation of videos which were originally taken from their game Arma 3, and falsely used as footage from real-life conflicts, mainly from the current war in Ukraine or Israeli–Palestinian conflict”.
EU Digital Services Act: Challenges remain as enforcement begins
From Friday (25 August), very large online platforms and search engines will have to comply with the new EU Digital Services Act, a landmark regulation designed to combat hate speech and disinformation online – though enforcement raises challenges.
Meta: Disinformation and elections
In the letter to Meta, Breton also used the opportunity to drive home the dangers of disinformation in the context of elections.
While the commissioner “noted steps taken by Meta to increase mitigation measures in the run-up of the recent elections in Slovakia”, he asks that Meta’s team submits to the Commission measures taken by Facebook and Instagram to mitigate deepfakes, quoting the upcoming national elections in Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Belgium, Romania, Austria and the European Parliament elections.
Meta did not respond to a Euractiv request for comment by the time of publication.
'Disinformation led by political leaders': Slovak DSA enforcement challenged
The EU’s regulation of disinformation and illegal content is being put to the test in Slovakia ahead of general elections at a time when some consider political leaders are using disinformation to boost their popularity with the electorate.
X: Back to basics
In the open letter addressed to X, Breton details the very foundation of the Digital Services Act: terms of use transparency, diligent removal of illegal content when flagged by users and taking mitigation measures against disinformation.
Considering the European Commission’s Vice President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová’s statement on 26 September that X was “the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts”, it looks like X is becoming the blame target of the EU.
Alongside the Bluesky announcement, Breton also published his long-awaited statement on a yet-to-come EU telecom act on LinkedIn instead of X.
Breton stated on Thursday (12 October) that his team received the reply from the social media X that the Commission’s Digital Services Act team will analyse “and decide on next steps”.
The Commission’s team can decide on sanctions provided in the act, which can mount up to a 6% fine on the global annual company’s turnover and an exclusion from the EU Single Market in case of recidivism.
EU’s Breton urges Musk to tackle spread of disinformation on X after Hamas attack
EU industry chief Thierry Breton told Elon Musk on Tuesday (10 October) to tackle the spread of disinformation on his X messaging platform since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel to comply with new EU online content rules.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald/Alice Taylor]
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Source: euractiv.com
