European Commission reportedly preparing to issue formal warning to X and Elon Musk over DSA

According to anonymous sources interviewed by Bloomberg, the European Commission is considering issuing a formal warning to Elon Musk’s social network X for failing to combat dangerous content, something it must do under the new Digital Services Act (DSA). If it follows through on the warning and X fails to respond, the Commission could fine it up to 6% of its total turnover.

X is just one of many big tech companies that the European Union has scrutinised under its new Digital Services and Digital Markets laws. The company has already taken on Apple, Meta and Microsoft for anti-competitive practices, so it won’t hesitate to take action against X as well.

According to the European Commission’s website, the Digital Services Act ensures that users can report illegal content such as hate speech, and platforms will have to deal with alerts quickly and keep you informed. Other problematic content that must be monitored under the Digital Services Act includes disinformation and terrorist propaganda.

The warning is expected to be issued by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton ahead of the EU’s summer recession, expected around the end of July, according to sources told Bloomberg.

A few years ago, Breton said that Twitter would then comply with EU rules. In response, Musk said that the platform would have a content moderation board. In 2023, Breton noted that Twitter has shown a strong willingness to comply with the EU DSA, so we could see the company respond to the Commission’s demands when the preliminary findings are shared.

The Commission launched an investigation into X in 2023 to look into several areas where the company may have failed to comply with DSA rules. A report from Neowin said at the time:

In a press release, the European Commission said it was formally investigating several areas where X allegedly failed to comply with DSA rules. These include “the risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to combat the dissemination of illegal content in the EU” as well as “the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat the manipulation of information on the platform.”

The European Commission is also investigating possible “alleged shortcomings in researchers’ access to X’s publicly available data”, as well as reports of a misleading user interface “in particular with regard to the checkmarks linked to certain subscription products, the so-called ‘blue checkmarks'”.

Hopefully the European Commission will give us some news as soon as possible. It remains to be seen how X and Elon Musk will react to the findings of the investigation. It is unlikely that the platform will want to face heavy fines after several years of trying to increase its revenue.

Source: Bloomberg