Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Elon Musk and X have been cited as the biggest source of Russian disinformation by the European Union in a recent press conference.
On Tuesday (Sept. 26), European Union Vice President Věra Jourová relayed the results of a new report on disinformation via social media platforms done by the European Commission, the 27-nation group’s executive, taking aim at Elon Musk’s social media company. “X, formerly Twitter … is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation followed by Facebook,” she stated.
She went on to declare that these platforms had much more work to do to remove online disinformation, much of it coming from Russia. “The Russian state has engaged in the war of ideas to pollute our information space with half-truths and lies to create a false image that democracy is no better than autocracy,” she said according to The Guardian before detailing results on X’s issues. “Disinformation actors were found to have significantly more followers than their non-disinformation counterparts and tend to have joined the platform more recently than non-disinformation users.”
The results are from a 200-page report on the update of the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation incorporating it into a set of mandatory regulations now known as the Digital Services Act. Under the act, all social media posts made in Europe over a six-month period were reviewed and recorded with hateful posts and posts spreading disinformation being removed by the platforms.
Google, Meta and other tech giants signed up to the code of practice last year. Elon Musk withdrew X from the voluntary agreement after acquiring the company last year. As part of the agreement, the tech companies reported their findings to the EU. One example came from YouTube, owned by Google, saying it excised “400 channels involved in coordinated influence operations linked to the Russian-state sponsored Internet Research Agency.”
“Mr. Musk knows he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice,” said President Jourová. “There are obligations under the hard law. So my message for Twitter/X is you have to comply. We will be watching what you do.” The report comes as key elections are set to take place in EU member countries Slovakia and Poland. X has been dealing with criticism for being lax when it comes to politics since earlier this year when it rolled back restrictions on political ads in the U.S.
