The European Commission announced, Monday, December 18, the opening of a “formal investigation” targeting the social network X (formerly Twitter) for alleged breaches of European rules on content moderation and transparency, two months later the opening of preliminary proceedings.
This is the first procedure of its kind under the new European Digital Services (DSA) legislation. “The days when large online platforms behaved as if they were ‘too big to care’ are over,” said European Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton.
A preliminary procedure
The Commission announced on October 12 the opening of a preliminary procedure on the subject of “false information”, “violent and terrorist content” and “hate speech”, targeting the social network of billionaire Elon Musk, five days later Hamas attacks against Israel. This first step consisted of a request for information to verify compliance with European obligations by the X platform.
The responses provided by the American company, as well as its “transparency report” published at the beginning of November to take stock of the content moderation means implemented, have not convinced the European executive, now endowed with powers of control and sanctions. European legislation now provides for fines of up to 6% of the global turnover of the group in question. In the event of serious and repeated violations, a platform may even be banned from operating in the EU.
“Gather evidence”
With the triggering of the “formal” procedure, the Commission explained on Monday that it would continue to “gather evidence” by requesting new information from X, conducting interviews or carrying out inspections.
This procedure now allows the Commission to take measures to force X to comply with the rules, or to accept remedies proposed by the platform to respond to concerns. No deadline has been set for the ongoing investigation.