The already stormy relations between the owner of X (formerly Twitter), American billionaire Elon Musk, and the European Commission reached a new level on Friday 13 October, when Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton announced that he had sent the social network a formal request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13262/9).
The opening of this investigation follows an initial letter sent by Mr Breton to Mr Musk on Tuesday 10 October, in which he summoned the American billionaire to put an end to the dissemination of illegal content and disinformation on his platform (see EUROPE 13269/8), against the backdrop of an attack carried out by Hamas in Israel, and Mr Musk’s response. The social network X had 24 hours to reassure the European Commission and “provide a rapid, precise and complete response”, which it failed to do.
As part of this request, the European Commission intends to focus on policies and practices relating to illegal online content, complaints handling, risk assessment and mitigation measures, while X is considered, under the DSA, to be a very large online platform and must therefore comply with strict moderation and control rules.
In recent days, several “qualified sources” had informed the European Commission that illegal content was continuing to circulate on the platform despite warnings from the relevant authorities. Several public media and civil society organisations had also reported falsified videos, images and content circulating on X or falsely presented as having to do with the situation in Israel and Gaza.
Teams from Elon Musk’s network will have to provide the information requested to the Commission services by 18 October for questions relating to the activation and operation of the crisis response protocol, and by 31 October for the remaining questions. Again, if X fails to convince, further proceedings could be launched against the platform. It could lead to financial penalties which, under the DSA, could amount to 6% of the company’s annual worldwide turnover, or a ban on services within the European single market.
Relations between the Commission and Elon Musk have deteriorated over the months. The Commission, through some of its Commissioners, has repeatedly asked Mr Musk to bring his social network into line with the DSA (see EUROPE 13194/4). As recently as last June, the Commissioner for the Internal Market called on Mr Musk to strengthen his resources in order to comply with the DSA (see EUROPE 13208/22). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)