European Commission warns Musk's X amidst spread of Russian disinformation

On Tuesday 26 September, Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission, called on tech giants, in particular the social network Twitter (X), owned by Elon Musk, to take a more responsible attitude to the fight against the spread of Russian misinformation.

Source: European Pravda with reference to Reuters 

Details: Speaking at a press conference, Jourová claimed that Russia has launched a "war of ideas" to pollute the European media environment with half-truths and lies, creating "a false image that democracy is no better than autocracy."  

The Vice President of the European Commission called on Google, Microsoft, Meta, TikTok and other major platforms to resist Russian manipulation, "especially as we have to expect that the Kremlin and others will be active before elections."

Separately, she mentioned X, which previously came out of the EU's voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation, but still falls under strict rules for monitoring its content in accordance with European law.

Quote: "Mr (Elon) Musk knows that he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice because now we have the Digital Services Act fully enforced. So my message for Twitter is you have to comply with the hard law and we will be watching what you are doing," Jourová asserted.

Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, played an important role in allowing Russian propaganda about Ukraine to reach more people than before the full-scale war, according to a study by the European Commission.

The Digital Services Act, which came into force for the largest social media sites on 25 August, requires them to assess the risk of spreading false information, prevent the worst from being promoted by algorithms, and subject their performance to auditing.

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