The European Commission announced on Monday, December 18, the opening of a “formal investigation” against the social network X (Twitter) for alleged violations of European rules on content moderation and transparency.
This is the first “formal” procedure under the new European digital services legislation (DSA). Two months ago, preliminary proceedings began.
Fines of up to 6% of turnover
On October 12, the Commission announced the opening of a preliminary procedure on “false information”, “violent and terrorist content” and “hate speech”, directed at billionaire Elon Musk’s social network, five days after the Hamas attacks. against Israel.
This first step consisted of a request for information to verify compliance with European obligations by platform X.
The responses of the American company, as well as its “transparency report” published at the beginning of November to take stock of the means of content moderation applied, have not convinced the European executive, now endowed with powers of control and sanctions.
European legislation currently provides for fines of up to 6% of the global turnover of the group in question. In case of serious and repeated violations, a platform may even be banned from operating in the EU.
With the activation of the “formal” procedure, the Commission explained on Monday that it would continue to “gather evidence” by requesting new information from X, conducting interviews or carrying out inspections.
This procedure now allows the Commission to take measures to force X to comply with the rules or accept solutions proposed by the platform to respond to concerns. No deadline has been set for the ongoing investigation.
Source: BFM TV
