Thought Leadership
The EU Commission is investigating US billionaire and Trump confidant Elon Musk’s social network X. Brussels is pressing ahead with proceedings shortly before the inauguration of the new US president.
The EU Commission is pressing ahead with the proceedings against Elon Musk’s Platform X and is demanding access to internal documents on algorithms. The company has been instructed to freeze and store the relevant data, the Brussels authority announced.
A spokesperson for the EU Commission explained that the platform is being asked to “provide us with internal documents on all recent changes to algorithms”. These documents must be sent to the Commission by February 15. Secondly, the platform is being asked to grant the authority access to certain programming interfaces. This will help with investigations. The instructions are being issued due to an ongoing investigation into X.
X has long been the focus of Brussels
The responsible EU Commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, explained that the Commission’s aim was “to ensure that all platforms in the EU respect our law, which creates a fair, safe and democratic online environment for all European citizens.” The Brussels authority emphasized that these steps were necessary to assess systemic risks of the platform.
The EU has been monitoring Musk’s activities for some time. Several proceedings are underway against X for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The aim of the proceedings is to check whether the platform complies with the regulations on curbing hate speech and disinformation.
DSA as a sharp sword against rule violations
The DSA is considered a sharp sword against the influence of large platforms. If the platforms do not comply, they face severe penalties – including fines amounting to 6 percent of their total annual global turnover. The EU Commission can also impose daily fines until the problems are rectified. Large services such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or X are subject to stricter rules than smaller platforms.
Concerns about Musk’s influence on European elections
Observers are also concerned about Musk’s potential influence on the German parliamentary elections in February and other elections in Europe, such as in Poland and the Czech Republic, later this year. These fears have been reinforced by Musk’s recent activities.
These include a live conversation with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on X, in which Musk supported the AfD and declared that only it could solve Germany’s problems. Musk also repeatedly attacked leading politicians such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a series of X posts.
Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg also caused a stir with his Meta group, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the short messaging service Threads. He ended his cooperation with fact-checkers in the USA.
dpa
