European Commission apparently getting ready to give X and Elon Musk a formal DSA warning

According to anonymous sources speaking to Bloomberg, the European Commission is planning to serve Elon Musk's social media platform, X, with a formal warning for failing to combat dangerous content, something it must do under the new Digital Services Act (DSA). If it does follow through and issue the warning, and X fails to act, it could lead the Commission to fine X up to 6% of its total revenues.

X is just one of many big tech companies that the European Union has been scrutinising in the framework of its new Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. The company has already come out swinging against Apple, Meta, and Microsoft for anti-competitive practices, so it won't hesitate to take action against X too.

According to the European Commission website, the Digital Services Act ensures that users can report illegal content like hate speech, and platforms will have to process alerts quickly and keep you updated. Other problematic content that has to be policed under the DSA includes misinformation and terrorist propaganda.

According to the sources speaking to Bloomberg, the warning is set to be issued by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton before the EU's summer recession, which is expected towards the end of July.

A few years ago, Breton said that then Twitter would fly by EU rules. In response, Musk said that the platform would get a content moderation council. In 2023, Breton noted that Twitter had shown a strong willingness to comply with the EU's DSA, so we could see it be responsive to the Commission when the preliminary findings are shared.

The Commission launched a probe into X back in 2023 to examine several areas where the company may not have followed DSA rules. A Neowin report said at the time:

In a press release, the European Commission stated it is formally looking into several areas where X might not have followed the DSA's rules. They include the "risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to counter the dissemination of illegal content in the EU" along with the "effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform."

 

The EC is also examining possible "suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to X's publicly accessible data" along with reports of a deceptive UI "notably in relation to checkmarks linked to certain subscription products, the so-called Blue checks."

Hopefully, we'll hear from the EC sooner rather than later, then we will need to see how X and Elon Musk react to the findings. It's not likely the platform will want to face big fines after several years of trying to increase revenues.

Source: Bloomberg

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