{"id":1190836,"date":"2023-10-10T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T21:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1190836"},"modified":"2023-10-10T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T21:09:09","slug":"eu-official-warns-elon-musk-about-xs-handling-of-disinformation-amid-israel-hamas-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1190836","title":{"rendered":"EU official warns Elon Musk about X\u2019s handling of disinformation amid Israel-Hamas war"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top European Union official is warning Elon Musk about the spread of misinformation on X amid the Israel-Hamas war. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent Musk an “urgent” letter<\/ins><\/a> about the company\u2019s handling of misinformation and its responsibilities under the Digital Services Act.<\/p>\n

The letter comes as researchers and fact checkers have warned about a wave<\/ins><\/a> of misinformation on X in the wake of the Hamas attacks in Israel. While Musk\u2019s recent move to strip headlines<\/ins><\/a> from links shared on the platform has made it more difficult to find news, verified users have also been sharing viral clips<\/ins><\/a> of completely unrelated content purporting to be scenes from the unfolding conflict.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFollowing the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU,\u201d Breton wrote in the letter to Musk. \u201cLet me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf1, we have indications of X\/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.<\/p>\n

Urgent letter to @elonmusk<\/a> on #DSA<\/a> obligations \u2935\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/avMm1LHq54<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

In particular, Breton called out the spread of \u201cfake 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.\u201d He also flagged the company\u2019s newly-changed public interest<\/ins><\/a> policy, saying that the change \u201cleft many European users uncertain\u201d about what type of content the platform allows.<\/p>\n

Breton also suggested X was not responding appropriately to requests to deal with \u201cpotentially illegal content,\u201d on its platform. \u201cWhen you receive notices of illegal content in the EU, you must be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content when warranted,\u201d Breton wrote. \u201cWe have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

X didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment, but Musk issued a brief reply on X. \u201cOur policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports,\u201d Musk wrote<\/ins><\/a>. \u201cPlease list the violations you allude to on X, so that that [sic] the public can see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company, which recently removed<\/ins><\/a> its misinformation-reporting tool and cut<\/ins><\/a> safety teams tasked with handling disinformation, has pointed to its crowd-sourced fact-checking tool, Community Notes, as its primary way of addressing misinformation.<\/p>\n

In an update<\/ins><\/a> posted shortly after Breton shared the letter, the company said that \u201cmore than 500 unique notes\u201d had been created over the last three days, including notes addressing \u201cfake videos made with game simulators\u201d and other \u201cout of context\u201d and \u201cunrelated\u201d footage. X added that it\u2019s \u201cactively working on\u201d changes \u201cthat will help automatically show notes on even more posts with matching video and images\u201d and that it\u2019s \u201cscaling up\u201d notifications for people who previously engaged with content later fact-checked with a note. The company didn\u2019t say how many users have received such notifications.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time European Union officials have raised concerns about the amount of disinformation on X. An EU report<\/ins><\/a> last month found that X had the highest prevalence of misinformation and disinformation. Under the Digital Services Act, companies like X are required to disclose details about their handling of disinformation.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/eu-official-warns-elon-musk-about-xs-handling-of-disinformation-amid-israel-hamas-war-210909999.html?src=rss
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\nSource: Engadget – EU official warns Elon Musk about X\u2019s handling of disinformation amid Israel-Hamas war<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A top European Union official is warning Elon Musk about the spread of misinformation on X amid the Israel-Hamas war. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent Musk an “urgent” letter about the company\u2019s handling of misinformation and its responsibilities under the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,110],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1190836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-engadget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}