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EU charges Elon Musk’s X for letting disinfo run wild (www.politico.eu)

submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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The tech mogul’s platform is the first to get hit with charges under new EU social media law.

The European Union is calling Elon Musk to order over how he turned social media site X into a haven for disinformation and illegal content.

The EU Commission on Friday formally charged X for failing to respect EU social media law. The platform could face a sweeping multi-million euro fine in a pioneering case under the bloc's new Digital Services Act (DSA), a law to clamp down on toxic and illegal online content and algorithms.

Musk's X has been in Brussels' crosshairs ever since the billionaire took over the company, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022. X has been accused of letting disinformation and illegal hate speech run wild, roll out misleading authentication features and blocking external researchers from tools to scrutinize how malicious content on the platforms spreads.

The European Commission oversees X and two dozens of the world's largest online platforms including Facebook, YouTube and others. The EU executive's probe into Musk's firm opened in December 2023 and was the first formal investigation. Friday's charges are the first-ever under the DSA.

Infringements of the DSA could lead to fines of up to 6 percent of a X’s global revenue.

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[-] oce@jlai.lu 40 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This a French scientific study showing how the Russian regime tries to influence the political debate in France with Twitter accounts, especially before the last parliamentary elections. The goal is to promote a party that is more favorable to them, namely, the far right. https://hal.science/hal-04629585v1/file/Chavalarias_23h50_Putin_s_Clock.pdf

In France, we have a concept called the "Republican front" that is kind of tacit agreement between almost all parties, left, center and right, to work together to prevent far-right from reaching power and threaten the values of the French Republic. This front has been weakening at every election, with the far right rising and lately some of the traditional right joining them. But it still worked out at the last one, far right was given first by the polls, but thanks to the front, they eventually ended up 3rd.

What this article says, is that the Russian regime has been working for years to invert this front and push most parties to consider that it is part of the left that is against the Republic values, more than the far right.
One of their most cynical tactic is using videos from the Gaza war to traumatize leftists until they say something that may sound antisemitic. Then they repost those words and push the agenda that the left is antisemitic and therefore against the Republican values.

[-] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 6 points 5 months ago

At this point is there even a single country that Russia isn't undermining? They are actively paying German far right politicians.

[-] uis@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

At this point is there even a single country that Russia isn't undermining?

All countries with UHC. Although it can be argued that countries without UHC are undermining themselves.

Putin on the other hand undermines every country. Even Russia.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

Sorry, what does UHC mean?

[-] uis@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

Universal Healthcare

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Thanks. Russia has certainly helped undermine the UK, which has UHC. There was Russian funding involved in Brexit campaigns, some of the UK's right-wing populists (e.g. Nigel Farage) have apparent Russian connections and support, and Russian social media campaigns support the far right in election campaigns. Brexit was certainly a blow to the country.

this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024

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