The European Union issued a warning to Elon Musk to abide by its laws on fake news and Russian propaganda, saying that X, formerly known as Twitter, had the highest ratio of disinformation of any social media platform.
European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said that X had the most disinformation posts based on the new criteria established by the Digital Services Act, a new set of laws that hold tech companies accountable for "harmful and illegal" content and requires the firms to be more transparent about their algorithms and content moderation policies. X has avoided signing the DSA's code of service, which would set the guidelines for what speech is allowed on the platform. The decision has made X an outlier among tech companies, which otherwise all signed on to the code and have been moderating their content as ordered.
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"Mr Musk knows he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice," Jourova told reporters on Tuesday. "There are obligations under the hard law. So my message for Twitter/X is you have to comply. We will be watching what you do."
"X, formerly Twitter … is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation followed by Facebook," the commissioner told reporters.
Jourova called on platforms to act against Russian propaganda ahead of the national and European elections over the next year.
"This is a multimillion euro weapon of mass manipulation aimed both internally at the Russians as well as Europeans and the rest of the world," Jourova told reporters Tuesday. "The very large platforms must address this risk. Especially that we have to expect that the Kremlin and others will be active before our European elections."
Jourova did not detail X's efforts because it declined to adhere to the EU code of service described in the DSA. Its competitors did release data in the meantime.
LinkedIn, which is operated by Microsoft, said it removed 6.7 million fake accounts and 24,000 pieces of content.
YouTube, which Google owns, told the EU that it removed "400 channels involved in coordinated influence operations linked to the Russian-state sponsored Internet Research Agency." Google also removed advertising from almost 300 sites linked to "state-funded propaganda sites" and rejected 140,000 political advertisers for "failing identity verification processes."
TikTok said it removed nearly 6 million fake accounts and 410 unverifiable advertisements.
Musk has spoken out against the DSA during his visits to Europe. He emphasized his "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach" philosophy during a June visit to the France-based Vivatech conference, where he was asked about his beliefs on the platform's more tolerant approach to speech. He also visited with Italian politicians to rally the continent's right-wing political leadership to help curb the impact of the European law.
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"I think people should be able to say things because the alternative is censorship," Musk said at the conference. "I think if you go down the censorship route, it's only a matter of time before censorship is turned upon you."
The EU has threatened X with a ban in the past if he failed to comply.