First European Union Probe Launched Against Elon Musk’s X Following Implementation of New Disinformation Regulations

Elon Musk’s X is facing the initial actions from the European Union for allegedly violating regulations regarding the management of illegal content and disinformation. This investigation marks the first instance of a significant online platform being scrutinized under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which was implemented earlier this year.

Regulators opened formal infringement proceedings against X two months after warning the company, formerly known as Twitter, about how it handled harmful content on its site, the European Commission said in a statement on Monday. Regulators will continue to gather evidence of violations and have the power to take enforcement action, it said.

“X remains committed to complying with digital services laws and is cooperating with the regulatory process,” X spokesman Joe Benarroch said via email. “It is important that this process remains free from political influence and abides by the law.”

The case is a major test of the bloc’s ability to enforce rules on U.S. social media giants including X, Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. as it seeks to rein in Silicon Valley power and strengthen Brussels as the world’s leading technology regulator. DSA threatens heavy fines or even an EU ban for repeated violations.

X is being investigated because it is suspected of neglecting transparency obligations and having a misleading user interface, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote on Monday.

“The era of big online platforms behaving as if they were ‘too big to care’ is over,” Breton said in a statement. “We now have clear rules, ex ante obligations, strong oversight, swift enforcement and deterrent sanctions, and are making full use of our toolkit to protect our citizens and our democracies.”

The DSA gives regulators new powers to take action against big tech companies over how they handle content on their platforms. Companies that do not comply with the regulations can eventually be fined up to 6 percent of annual revenue.

The investigation follows a formal request for comment in October about how the platform handled content, particularly after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. Meta and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok were among other companies questioned about how they handled the risk of illegal content.

X’s response and the company’s transparency report and risk assessment raised concerns that it had breached the DSA. Although X has changed practices following discussions with the commission, the investigation shows there is still more to do, according to a senior commission official.

The Commission’s investigation does not focus on individual content, as individual EU countries still have to figure out what is illegal. Instead, the investigation will look at how X handles content and whether the company is following its own terms, mechanisms for users to report illegal content and how quickly the company handles these issues, a senior official said at a news conference on Monday.

The commission is looking specifically at the company’s blue check verification system, which showed someone was a verified and trusted source. After Musk has taken over the site, a blue tick will show users who have paid for the platform’s premium service. Regulators are investigating whether the blue checks are misleading and whether X is adding posts from premium users to feeds.

The review also examines the effectiveness of Community Notes, X’s crowdsourced fact-checking system, as well as its content moderation resources, the access it provides to scholars and researchers, and the company’s advertising database.

The EU enforcement body will now carry out a thorough analysis – possibly including interviews and inspections – of a company’s resources and practices to decide whether a company has breached the DSA. The Commission may also launch further investigations into X’s problems.

There is no deadline for the examination.