ELON MUSK hits back at EU’s claims that disinformation and fake news is being spread on X over Hamas’ vile attack on Israel

 


Thursday, October 12, 2023 – Elon Musk has responded to the European Union’s concerns that disinformation and fake news are being spread on X over Hamas’ vile attack on Israel

Elon Musk, alongside Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, had been warned to take action to crack down on the spread of his disinformation and fake, misleading content by Thierry Breton, European Union commissioner and self-styled ‘digital enforcer.’

In a new three-page letter, chief executive Linda Yaccarino said the company had ‘taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content’ and ‘responded to 80 requests to take down content from the EU within the required timelines.’

‘There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts,’ Yaccarino wrote.

In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s attack, Yaccarino wrote that X ‘assembled a leadership group to assess the situation.’

Breton demanded X and Meta provide details within 24 hours on how ‘illegal content and disinformation’ is being removed from their platforms in line with the EU’s new Digital Service Act (DSA).

The CEO said that at the time that Breton made his concerns public, the company had not been contacted by Europol regarding illegal content.

The legislation, which came into effect for large platforms in August, bans illegal online content under threat of fines running as high as six percent of a company’s global turnover.

The warning sparked an online duel between Breton and Musk on Wednesday.

Breton’s letter to Musk highlighted ‘violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform’ following Hamas’s weekend operation to kill and take hostage Israelis living close to the boundary with Gaza.

But Musk challenged Breton’s post and issued a request that the EU commissioner ‘please list the violations you allude to on X’, and said his platform’s policy was that ‘everything was open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports’.

Breton responded that it was up to Musk to ‘demonstrate that you walk the talk’ and added that his team was ready to ‘enforce rigorously’ the DSA compliance rules.

Musk shot back, again on X: ‘No backroom deals. Please post your concerns explicitly on this platform.’

He posted to another user that ‘I still don’t what they’re talking about!’

In a post on the social media platform on Monday, X said it removed newly created accounts affiliated with the Islamist group Hamas and had ‘actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct.’ X did not disclose the actions it took on the posts, which can be removed or have their distribution reduced by the company.

The EU commissioner’s letter to Zuckerberg asked him to ‘urgently’ ensure that moderation systems on Meta platforms were effective and to be ‘vigilant’ about DSA compliance in light of the ongoing conflict.

A Meta spokesperson responded that, after the Hamas attack, ‘we quickly established a special operations centre staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation’.

“The teams were working to ensure compliance with ‘our policies or local law’ and coordinating with fact-checkers to curb disinformation, the spokesperson said, adding: ‘We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.’

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