The European Union (EU), has initiated legal actions against X, due to concerns related to disinformation and illegal content.
The EU commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton said on Monday that the commission opened formal infringement proceedings against X, a move in response to suspected breaches of X’s transparency obligations and duties to counter illegal content and disinformation.
Breton said,
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“Today’s opening of formal proceedings against X makes it clear that with the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are too big to care has come to an end. We invite X to cooperate with us in this investigation”.
The opening of legal proceedings implies that the EU will investigate X’s systems and policies related to certain suspected infringements, to ensure that European citizens are safeguarded online.
In response to the EU’s legal action, X disclosed that it remains committed to complying with the Dififal Services Act, and is cooperating with the regulatory process.
The social network platform added that it is important if the legal action taken can remain free of political influence and doesn’t contradict the law.
X wrote,
“It is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law. X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal”.
The European Commission launched the proceedings under the DSA “on the basis of the preliminary investigation conducted so far, including based on an analysis of the risk assessment report submitted by X in September.
Recall that the commission had earlier sent X a formal request for information in October, several days after Hamas’s attack on Israel, demanding answers on the alleged spread of illegal content and disinformation.
X responded by disclosing that it had already removed numerous accounts associated with Hamas from its platform. The investigation marked the first instance under the EU’s regulations which came into effect in August.
Notably, following the EU’s recent legal action against X, the investigation will also address a suspected deceptive design of the X user interface, notably focusing on the platform’s blue checkmark.
X however disclosed that the blue ticks denote verified accounts that have an active subscription to the X Premium service and meet certain eligibility requirements, such as showing a display name and profile photo, being in active use, and being secure and non-deceptive.
It is worth noting that under the recent EU law, called the Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms with more than 45 million active users are subject to content moderation rules.
Therefore, infringements of the DSA can result in fines, and financial penalties which can be up to 6% of global turnover. In exceptional cases, a penalty might include a temporary shutdown of the company.