European regulators face questions about whether to scale back investigations into Musk-owned social media network X as Elon Musk's geopolitical influence grows due to his closeness to President-elect Donald J. Trump I am doing it.
On Friday, European Union officials signaled they had no intention of withdrawing.
Regulators in Brussels announced they were widening their investigation into X for possible violations of a law called the Digital Services Act, which aims to crack down on online misinformation and illegal content. Officials handed X over internal documents about the company's recommendation algorithms, as well as access to data that would allow regulators to study the platform's content moderation policies and understand why content from certain accounts spreads. He said he ordered the government to provide access to
“We are committed to ensuring that all platforms operating within the EU comply with our laws, which aim to make the online environment fair, safe and democratic for all Europeans. ” said Hena Virkunen, European Commission Executive Vice-President for Technology Sovereignty and Security. And democracy.
X did not respond to requests for comment.
The Digital Services Act, passed in 2022, gives regulators broad powers to force social media companies to crack down on hate speech, misinformation and illegal content on their platforms. Companies that fail to comply could be subject to fines of up to 6% of global revenue.
The European Union began investigating Company X more than a year ago, accusing it of failing to address illegal content and disinformation. The investigation comes after Musk significantly scaled back X's content moderation policies.
The phased development announced Friday has broader implications as it shows European regulators are moving forward despite Musk's ties to the incoming Trump administration.
The X investigation has highlighted a widening transatlantic rift over the issue of free speech. In the United States, the First Amendment provides broad protections for even the most offensive things people can say, and Musk and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance are calling the EU law a form of government censorship. criticizes. European officials see some restrictions on speech as necessary measures to protect democracy and religious and ethnic minorities.
More battles are on the way. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is also under investigation for breaches of the Digital Services Act. The company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company is ending its fact-checking program in the United States and implementing some of the global restrictions on people's speech on issues such as immigration and transgender rights. announced that it would end, and criticized the European Union.
EU officials have not said when the investigation into X will conclude. On Friday, regulators ordered the company to preserve internal documents and other information that could be part of the investigation until the end of the year.
