The European Commission announced, on Friday January 17, new technical measures in the investigation against the social network X, suspected of spreading false information and manipulating public debate in Europe, after new provocations from Elon Musk.
” Today [vendredi]we are taking new steps to shed light on the compliance of X’s recommendation systems » with the Digital Services Act (DSA), announced the European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen. “We are determined to ensure that all platforms operating in the EU comply with our legislation, which aims to make the online environment fair, safe and democratic for all European citizens”she said. Brussels is under pressure from MEPs and member states to act firmly, while the boss of X is suspected of manipulating its algorithms to support the far right in Europe.
On December 18, 2023, the European Commission opened a “formal investigation” targeting social network X for alleged breaches of European rules on content moderation and transparency.
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“Preservation order”
The new European measures are “independent” recent positions taken by Elon Musk in favor of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the German far-right party, which fall under freedom of expression, according to Brussels.
The Commission asked the American social network on Friday to provide before February 15 “internal documentation on its recommendation systems and any recent changes made to them”.
In addition, she announced a “preservation order” which forces the platform to “preserve internal documents and information regarding future changes in the design and operation of its recommendation algorithms, for the period January 17, 2025 to December 31, 2025”unless the Commission’s ongoing investigation is concluded before that date.
Finally, the Commission issued a “request for access to certain commercial APIs of X”technical interfaces allowing direct access to content to check content moderation and the virality of accounts.
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“These measures will enable the Commission services to take into account all relevant facts in the complex assessment of systemic risks” of the platform and how it mitigates them, explained the European executive in a press release.
A danger for democracy in Europe, according to Scholz
For his part, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accused, on Friday, American billionaire Elon Musk, close to Donald Trump, of threatening democracy in Europe. “He supports the far right all over Europe, in Britain, in Germany and in many countries. This is unacceptable and endangers the democratic development of Europe.”said Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, during a press conference with his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson.
The boss of Tesla and CEO of SpaceX has, in recent weeks, increased his declarations of support for the far-right German party AfD in view of the legislative elections on February 23 in Germany. Polls credit this party with second place with at least 20% of the vote, behind the conservatives currently in opposition.
Thursday January 9, Elon Musk organized a live debate with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on his X platform. The richest man in the world also called for the release of the activist from British far-right Tommy Robinson and supports the anti-immigration Reform UK party. Elon Musk met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a key figure of the radical right, when the latter visited Donald Trump in Florida in early December.
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