EU fires urgent warning at Elon Musk’s X over illegal content and disinformation following Hamas attacks - updated title

In a very swift test of the European Union’s newly updated content moderation rulebook, the bloc has fired a public warning at Elon Musk–owned X (formerly Twitter) for failing to tackle illegal content circulating on the platform in the wake of Saturday’s deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas terrorists based in the Gaza Strip.

The European Commission has also raised concerns about the spread of disinformation on X related to the terrorist attacks and their aftermath.

Unlike terrorism content, disinformation is not illegal in the EU per se. However, the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) puts an obligation on X — as a so-called very large online platform — to mitigate risks attached to harmful falsehoods as well as to act diligently on reports of illegal content.

Graphic videos apparently showing terrorist attacks on civilians have been circulating on X since Saturday, along with other content, including some posts that purport to show footage from the attacks inside Israel or Israel’s subsequent retaliation on targets in the Gaza Strip but which fact-checkers have identified as false.

The Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and tourists, which took place after militants inside Gaza managed to get past border fences and mount a series of surprise attacks, have been followed by Israel’s prime minister declaring “we are at war” and its military retaliating by firing scores of missiles into the Gaza Strip.

A number of videos posted to X since the attacks have been identified as entirely unrelated to the conflict — including footage that was filmed last month in Egypt and even a clip from a video game that had been posted to the platform with a (false) claim it showed Hamas missile attacks on Israel.

A Wired report yesterday summed up the chaotic situation playing out on Musk’s platform in an article entitled “The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation.”

At one point, Musk himself even recommended people follow accounts that had posted antisemitic comments and false information in the past — although he subsequently deleted the tweet where he had made the suggestion.

The problem for Musk is the DSA regulates how social media platforms and other services that carry user-generated content must respond to reports of illegal content like terrorism.

It also puts legal obligation on larger platforms — including X — to mitigate risks from disinformation. So the fast-moving and bloody events unfolding in Israel and Gaza are offering a real-world test of whether the EU’s rebooted rulebook is big and beefy enough to tackle X’s most notorious shitposter. Who, since last fall, is also the platform’s owner.

Since taking over Twitter (as it was then), Musk has painted the largest target on X when it comes to DSA enforcement on account of a series of changes he’s pushed out that make it harder for users to locate quality information on X.

This includes ending legacy account verification and turning the Blue Check system into a game of pay-to-play. He’s also ripped up a bunch of legacy content moderation policies and slashed in-house enforcement teams while promoting a decentralized, crowdsourced alternative (rebranded as Community Notes), which essentially outsources responsibility for dealing with tricky issues like disinformation to users in what looks suspiciously like another gambit to eke out extra engagement and farm confusion by applying a philosophy of extreme relativism so culture warriors are encouraged to keep forever fighting for their own “truth” in the comments.

Oh and he also pulled X out of the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation earlier this year in a very clear thumb of the nose to EU regulators.

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