Brussels is increasing its surveillance on tech giants amid possible repercussions on the European elections. The European Commission has requested information from the former Twitter, now X, on the mechanisms it uses to moderate content on the social network, after having cut 20% of its staff in this division.
Specifically, the European Commission has asked the social network of Elon Musk for detailed information and internal documents on the tools it uses to moderate content, after the tech giant decided to let go of 20% of the team dedicated to this task. Additionally, Brussels points out that the social network has reduced its linguistic coverage in the EU from 11 to 7 languages, which could affect its ability to moderate content and combat misinformation.
Brussels has also requested details on risk assessments and risk mitigation measures of using generative artificial intelligence tools in electoral processes, the dissemination of illegal content, and the protection of fundamental rights.
The information requested by Brussels on Wednesday is another step in the procedure that, last December 2023, opened against X to assess whether it has violated the European Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to risk management, content moderation, advertising transparency, and data access by researchers.
The tech giant has until May 17 to provide the European Commission with the requested information regarding content moderation resources and risk mitigation of generative artificial intelligence. For the other procedures, the deadline is May 27.
If X fails to meet Brussels’ requirements, it could face fines for providing incorrect, incomplete, or misleading information in response to an information request. The failure to respond within the established deadline could result in the imposition of coercive fines. If it is proven that the social network has violated EU digital services regulations, it could face fines of 6% of its global annual turnover.
