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Brussels Expands Investigation Against X Over Content Moderation

Brussels Expands Investigation Against X Over Content Moderation

If confirmed illegal, the sanction against the social platform could amount to 6% of the global turnover of the social network, and even lead to the closure of its operations in Europe.

José A. González

Viernes, 17 de enero 2025, 18:45

Brussels takes a further step against Elon Musk and X, formerly known as Twitter. The European Commission has expanded its investigation into this social platform to assess whether the company is doing enough to moderate the content it offers.

With this decision, which follows several high-level reactions in the Old Continent after Musk's support for the candidate of the extremist AfD party, the community club expands the dossier opened since December 2023 against X. The inquiries are based on three pillars.

The first requires the American firm to submit all documentation on its content recommendation system to its users by February 15, including any changes made in recent months. The second focuses on preserving all internal documents regarding any algorithm modifications from January 17 to December 31 of this year. The last aims to understand and investigate how content moderation and account virality function.

"We are taking new measures to shed light on the compliance of X's recommendation systems with DSA obligations. We are committed to ensuring that all platforms operating in the EU respect our legislation, which aims to make the digital environment fair, safe, and democratic for all European citizens," stated Henna María Virkkunen, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, in the statement announcing the decision.

The same text indicates that with these measures, the Commission intends to assess whether X complies with the regulations and to adopt remedies for any potential risks posed by its activities.

If the European authorities conclude that X does not meet its legal obligations, the sanction could amount to 6% of the global turnover of the social network. If the company continues to defy the regulations, the European Commission could ultimately seek a court order to suspend the company's operations.

Doubts with Tech Giants

X is not the only social platform under scrutiny by the authorities. Meta, the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg, has also been in the spotlight in recent weeks following its 180-degree shift in content moderation. "It's time to return to our roots regarding freedom of expression," announced the Facebook owner in a video earlier this year.

With this decision, the applications under Meta's umbrella are left without human verifiers, and moderation will be handled by an artificial intelligence system. "This will only be applied in the United States," company sources confirmed to this newspaper.

The shift in content brings more changes, specifically the update of its policies. From the early days of 2025, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads allow, among other things, calling homosexuals "mentally ill."

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todoalicante Brussels Expands Investigation Against X Over Content Moderation