The European Union threatens to sanction X, TikTok and Meta for allowing the massive dissemination of false information and manipulated videos about the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, has demanded from X owner Elon Musk, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg “effective mitigation measures” to control the fraudulent content.
Fake content posted on TikTok and X spreads very quickly, garnering thousands (or, in some cases, millions) of views before being verified. For the European Commission, the spread of false content poses a “risk to public safety”, and stopping this mass spread is “particularly important” when it comes to content related to violence, terrorism and incitement to hatred.
Last Tuesday, Thierry Breton published an “urgent letter” addressed to Elon Musk through his official X profile. In this message, Breton warned of the circulation of “illegal content and terrorist propaganda” on the social network Twitter) and demanded “effective measures” to control false or manipulated content and a “quick and diligent” response to prevent it from spreading before being verified.
A day later, on Wednesday, Breton asked Mark Zuckerberg in a similar message to review the effectiveness of his systems to mitigate illegal content and reminded him of the need to collaborate with the European police and the proximity of several elections in the common territory.
On Thursday, the commissioner demanded urgent measures from TikTok through another letter to its CEO. Additionally, he noted TikTok’s “special obligation” to protect children and adolescents from violent content, “given that many users, particularly minors, turn to its platform as a source of news.”
Thierry Breton has reminded platforms that the dissemination of illicit images and videos violates the Digital Services Act (DSA) which came into force for some large platforms at the end of August, and has indicated that, “given the urgency”, he hopes that those responsible respond to your request with “a quick, accurate and complete response” within 24 hours.
Following an exchange of tweets between Breton and Musk in which the owner of tagged tens of thousands” of messages about the war and hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas. She has also assured that, in accordance with its internal policies, the platform eliminates all “illegal content, including terrorist content” and that it limits the reach of those publications with “harmful, but not illegal” content.
However, the European Commission (EC) announced that it is already investigating whether Elon Musk’s social network complies with European legislation. The company risks fines of up to 6% of its global turnover if found guilty of DSA breaches.
Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has reduced staff from 7,500 to about 1,500 to cut costs, including many who worked on content moderation, identifying and removing coordinated advertising campaigns, and curating credible content.
In the 48 hours after Hamas fighters’ surprise attack on Israel, misinformation proliferated on Elon Musk’s social network. The dissemination of images and videos from other previous armed conflicts that have nothing to do with these attacks and even videos from video games as if they were current has been confirmed.
A fake video, purportedly showing Israeli generals after being captured by Hamas fighters, was viewed more than 1.7 million times. In reality, the video was taken out of context and showed a previous arrest in Azerbaijan that had nothing to do with this conflict. Another post that was viewed more than 500,000 times on X showed a downed plane with the tag
According to CNN, several X users shared a fake White House press release claiming that the United States was sending billions of dollars in aid to Israel in response to the attack. This manipulated information spread quickly through Elon Musk’s platform. Furthermore, CNN claims that Musk himself added to the information chaos by encouraging X users to learn about the conflict between Israel and Hamas through an account that spread fraudulent information.
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