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On Monday (August 12), European Commissioner Thierry Breton urged Elon Musk to ensure X complies with EU regulations and effectively moderates content, following Musk’s planned live debate with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
On Monday, the Internal Market Commissioner Sent a letter To Musk, with a copy to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, regarding plans to livestream a conversation between the former US president and Musk on X, which will also be available to users in the EU. The event will take place on November US presidential election.
“I understand that you are currently stress testing the platform,” Breton wrote in the letter, referring to the process of evaluating the platform’s performance under heavy usage to ensure it can handle large amounts of data and activity. He then reminded Musk of the due diligence obligations he must perform during this process.
Interview Expected will be broadcast on Trump’s X account on Monday. His account was banned for inciting the January 6th Capitol riot, but he recover In 2022, Musk acquired the platform.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tensions between Musk and the European Commission were already evident in July, when Musk Announce Plans to sue the European Commission over alleged DSA Violations Related to policy and transparency issues with X-authenticated accounts, resulting in debate On X with Brittany.
In the same month, French President Emmanuel Macron Suggested Nominate Breton for a second five-year term.
X Obligations under EU law
Breton reminded Musk that X is subject to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s landmark content moderation regulation that came into effect on February 17. Under the DSA, X is designated as a very large online platform (VLOP), which means it must comply with strict transparency and risk management rules.
Breton also wrote that X has a legal obligation to protect free speech and media pluralism while mitigating harmful content, especially during events such as live broadcasts.
The Commissioner said X must take effective measures against harmful content and ensure the platform complies with EU law, especially on illegal content and false information.
“DSA obligations apply without exception or discrimination to the entire community of users and the moderation of X’s content (including yourself, a user with more than 190 million followers),” which the EU has access to, Breton wrote in his letter to Musk.
X must also notify EU authorities of measures taken against illegal content, act promptly and objectively on user notifications of illegal content, inform users of actions taken in response to those notifications, and report publicly on its content moderation efforts, Breton wrote.
Concerns remain
Breton stressed the need for strict content moderation, especially during major political or social events, and cited the example of public unrest in the UK over content on X.
Breton mentioned the European Commission’s ongoing investigation X was charged with violating the DSA by failing to adequately address illegal content and false information under the DSA. The investigation began in December 2023, in part due to X’s handling of content related to the riots in the UK. Although X is no longer part of the EU, harmful content from the UK could have affected the investigation if it reached EU users.
Breton urged Musk to make sure System X worked and report on the steps taken.
“My department and I will remain vigilant to any evidence pointing to a violation of the DSA and will not hesitate to use the full range of our toolkit,” which could include taking interim measures, the commissioner said in the letter.
Recently, X came under scrutiny from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) start The lawsuit against the platform resulted in pause The data of some EU users is used for artificial intelligence training. Nevertheless, data protection complaints continued.
(Editing by Chris Powers)
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