EU asks Elon Musk to ‘walk the talk’ on X/Twitter disinformation over Hamas attack

A top EU official has asked X/Twitter owner Elon Musk to “walk the talk” when it comes to curbing fake content and the glorification of violence following the terror attack against Israel by Hamas.

EU commissioner Thierry Breton wrote in an open letter shared on X that illegal content and disinformation were being shared via the social media platform about the Hamas incursion into Israel, which began on Saturday.

He warned the EU could punish X for failure to comply with its obligations to moderate content under the Digital Services Act, and gave Mr Musk 24 hours to give a “prompt, accurate and complete response”.

“You need to be very transparent and clear on what content is permitted under your terms and consistently and dingently enforce your own policies,” Mr Berton said, adding that the social media company “must be timely, diligent and objective” in taking action and removing relevant content when it receives warranted notices of illegal content in the EU.

“I therefore invite you to urgently ensure that your systems are effective, and report on the crisis measures taken to my team,” the EU commissioner said, calling for Mr Musk to respond within 24 hours.

Replying to the statement, the Tesla chief called on the commissioner to “list the violations”.

“Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them,” the multibillionaire posted on X.

“You are well aware of your users’ – and authorities’ – reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk,” Mr Breton said in response to Mr Musk’s tweet.

While X has claimed it was treating the ongoing crisis in Israel with its highest level of response, watchdog groups and the EU said misinformation and harmful content continue to flourish on the microblogging platform.

X’s own safety team acknowledged there had been an increase in daily active users on X in the conflict area in the past couple of days, saying that there have been more than 50 million posts globally focusing on the weekend attack.

“As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response,” the team said.

The struggle to find reliable news on the platform was exacerbated when Mr Musk himself flagged two accounts as “good” for “following the war”.

Journalists, however, pointed out that these accounts had previously shared a fake AI-generated image of an explosion at the US Pentagon, and that one of them had also posted antisemitic comments. Mr Musk’s posts recommending them have now been deleted.

Users on the platform also pointed out that old videos are being repackaged and circulated on X as if they are from the most recent attack.

One widely shared video falsely claimed to show a Hamas militant shooting down an Israeli helicopter, but was later found to be a clip from a video game.

“Public media and civil society organisations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games,” the Eu commissioner said in his letter addressing Mr Musk.

X has not immediately responded to The Independent’s request for comment.