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.
We can only hope he does. More people move over to mastodon with large companies running their own instances in the ecosystem.
This would allow for a federated broadcast system similar to how Twitter is now used, but if mastodon gets critical mass and governments start using it like they do Vichy Twitter it would be great news.
If that leads to some extra government grants for the further development of mastodon and the fediverse… Possibly even under the guise of standing up to big american tech… we all win.
But if he does, he signed the Death warrant of his own platform. A lot of governments and mega corps are there because of users. Governments will all need to replace it immediately if they find out their main broadcasting platform could be turned off tomorrow.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a government institution in the EU above the municipal level which doesn’t have a mastodon server or account on some government server.
This is such an accurate description of X, thanks for that! W/r/t getting people off of corporate social media platforms, I think this is one area where celebrities could really do some good. The Fediverse isn’t on most peoples’ radars—and while there is a vague, burgeoning awareness that social media might be problematic, people are accustomed to their feeds, and frankly have more pressing things to worry about.
What’s more, even people who are acutely aware of the situation continue to use these platforms, because the artists/journalists/content creators and what-have-you that they follow are still on these platforms. I’ve seen a thousand comments to this effect here on Lemmy. I listen to a ton of podcasts, political and otherwise, and all the hosts are left of center to varying degrees. I’m constantly gritting my teeth when they talk about their instagram feeds, and ask me to follow them on Vichy twitter.
I understand that social media in general, and twitter in particular, has been a really useful tool for people to communicate with their audience, and build a following. I tell myself that it isn’t reasonable to expect all these people that I respect and listen to daily to hold themselves to a higher ethical standard, because it might shrink their audience, and thus threaten their livelihoods. We can’t expect the smaller fish to lead the way on this.
But, if someone could get a big name talking about this stuff, it could really make a difference. It’s just too easy to ignore right now.
I also read the term and though… this fits.
Twitter served a purpose as it allowed yelling into a crowd and people interested could tune into your yelling. Especially for official announcements it was great. I see that there is a need for a broadcast method for companies and even more for governments. Mastodon seems to fit better. It allows them to run their own server and keep it closed so no need to moderate users but still able to have reach.