EU Report Finds Elon Musk’s X to Be Major Source of Russian Disinformation

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova has called on Silicon Valley platforms, including Elon Musk’s X, to increase their efforts in combating Russia’s “war of ideas” and the spread of disinformation. Jourova emphasized the need for action ahead of upcoming national and European elections, stating that these platforms are powerful tools for manipulation, targeting both Russians and Europeans, as well as the global population.

“The very big platforms have to address this risk. Especially as we have to wait for the Kremlin and others to be active before our European elections.

The EU released reports on how each of the big tech companies, including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, fares in the fight against disinformation.

Most of the major forums agreed to work with the EU to develop voluntary codes of conduct aimed at setting industry standards for fact-checking and other measures. Blokki also implemented a pilot project to assess the extent of the problem.

“X, formerly Twitter, which is no longer under code, is the platform with the highest share of error or disinformation messages,” Jourova said. The pilot also showed that disinformation operators were found to have significantly more followers than their non-disinformation offering counterparts, and tended to have joined the platform more recently than non-disinformation users.

He noted several actions taken by the forums to combat Russian influence. Google told the bloc that it had terminated more than 400 channels involved in Russian influence activities during the first four months of the year. Meta, on the other hand, said it had expanded fact-checking partnerships in 22 languages in the EU.

The EU’s new law regulating the content of platforms, the Digital Services Act, entered into force last month.

“Since Twitter is designated as a very large online platform, of course it comes with a heavy set of obligations,” Jourova said. “So my message to Twitter is that you have to follow the tough law and we’re going to watch what you do.”

Jourova also said that the flow of Russian disinformation is particularly acute in Slovakia, where elections are held on Saturday.

“Slovakia has been singled out as a fertile ground for the success of Russia’s pro-Kremlin and pro-war narratives,” he said, adding that Facebook and Google have taken steps to step up efforts to combat fake information after the pressure. from the EU. “This week’s election is a test case because the approach to Russia’s war in Ukraine is a dividing line.”

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