The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk to comply with sweeping new laws on fake news and Russian propaganda, after X – formerly known as Twitter – was found to have the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.
The report analysed the ratio of disinformation for a new report laying bare for the first time the scale of fake news on social media across the EU, with millions of fake accounts removed by TikTok and LinkedIn.
Facebook was the second worst offender, according to the first ever report recording posts that will be deemed illegal across the EU under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in August.
Nevertheless, Facebook and other tech giants, including Google, TikTok and Microsoft, have signed up to the code of practice the EU drew up to ensure they could get ready in time to operate within the confines of the new laws.
Twitter left the code of practice but it is obliged under the new law to comply with the rules or face a ban across the EU.
The new laws under the DSA will enable “structural remedies” for consistent non-compliance, and it requires fighting disinformation. This is the EU telling him to shape up or risk forced divestment.
The question is whether they will make good on it, or who blinks first.
Berlaymont doesn’t blink. They also don’t bluff. It’s a civil service born as the administrative arm of a trade cartel, as a company you can safely assume that anything they’re saying is an offer you can’t refuse.