EU Opens Formal Probe Into X, In Attack On Elon Musk's Free Speech Policy

European Union officials announced this week that they are launching a formal investigation of X, over its content moderation and privacy policy, a first formal probe of a major platform under the new Digital Services Act which entered into force in November for 19 big tech platforms.

“Today’s opening of formal proceedings against X makes it clear that, with the DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ has come to an end,” said Thierry Breton, notorious anti-free speech left-wing EU Commissioner for Internal Market.

European Commission officials will look into a range of new features that have been added to X under owner Elon Musk, and other potential infringements including "Suspected breach of obligations to counter #IllegalContent and #Disinformation; Suspected breach of #Transparency obligations; Suspected #DeceptiveDesign of user interface," according to Breton.

The investigation is the beginning of a process where officials will carry out interviews and gather more evidence. “We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president for digital affairs in Europe.

There is no deadline for when the EU investigation has to conclude.

Monday's announcement follows an initial EU investigation that was opened against X in October, claiming that graphic illegal content and so-called disinformation linked to Hamas-Israel war was able to spread widely.

"X remains committed to complying with the Digital Services Act and is cooperating with the regulatory process," X Safety said in a post. "It is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law. X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform, while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal."

On her part, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a post: "X is the most transparent platform. And we've been committed to working with the EU Commission since day one. We'll continue to protect free speech all over the world and it's also extremely important that @ThierryBreton commits to fostering a regulatory environment that is equally fair and open for ALL platforms."

Musk responding to Breton's post, called out the EU commission's bias. "Are you taking action against other social media?" he wrote. "Because if you have those issues with this platform, and none are perfect, the others are much worse." Meta platforms including Instagram and Facebook were reported recently to be hosting viral child sex exploitation content.

Back in October, Musk clashed publicly with Breton. In a series of posts on X, Musk accused Breton of carrying out backroom dealing, prompting Breton to use his account to promote X competitor BlueSky. “The EU's relationship with X has been rocky ever since Musk took over,” says Mathias Vermeulen, director of Brussels-based data rights consultancy AWO. “Whereas Musk had told Breton back in May 2022 that the DSA is ‘exactly aligned with my thinking,’ it is clear that the EU doesn't exactly agree with that statement anymore.”

Following Monday's EU commission announcement, critics on social media, pointed out that X is unique in having an open fact-checking and context system called Community Notes which has been praised for correcting disinformation on the platform in a more democratic and trusted way.

"@ThierryBreton Is EU reluctant to give up centralized control and instead rely on democratic fact checking offered by community notes?" X emplyee @AqueelMiq said replying to the EU official. "Has any of the EU regulators looked at our open source code? No other social media has done that. I don't even know what deceptive ui means lol."

Author and liberal commentator Michael Shellenberger wrote on X: "In Europe, people are going about their lives like everything's normal. But everything's not normal. Quite the contrary: the continent is on the cusp of a new dark age. If the European Commission gets its way, accessing the free Internet may become illegal, like it is in China."