Eu Commission takes action against online disinformation on Hamas attack
Social media are a fundamental part of the current global information scene. This is one of the reasons why, less than two months ago, the European Union, through the issuance of the Digital Services Act, regulated the publication of content on various online platforms. The declared aim of this Act was to more effectively protect users and their fundamental rights on the internet, by instituting accountability and transparency measures for digital platforms. In this way, the intention was to harmonise the different national legislations in the European Union in order to counter illicit content. This objective would be achieved by identifying a systematic set of rules that would be able to address the online provision of all services by countering all types of illicit content, while at the same time integrating the various related sectoral regulations, such as those on consumer protection or copyright.
In this context, on 10 October 2023, the European Commission, in the presence of Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, published a warning letter against Elon Musk, owner of X, for alleged misinformation on his social network regarding the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on the state of Israel, which began on 7 October. In the letter, Breton reminded Musk how the DSA establishes very precise obligations regarding the moderation of online messages. Therefore, transparency and clarity was demanded with regard to what content is allowed under X’s conditions, applying the platform’s policies coherently and diligently. First and foremost, the dissemination of false content (like deep fakes, increasingly present in the virtual disinformation sphere), decontextualised content, or content inciting hatred, terrorism and violence was condemned. In particular, the absence of timeliness, objectivity and diligence in intervening to prevent the circulation of such content was emphasised. In addition, Breton called on Musk to provide proportionate and effective mitigation measures, which are especially necessary to address issues of public order and safety, as public media and civil society organisations have been reporting false and misleading facts and images derived directly from X – such as war images that were actually taken from a video game, or the sharing of war videos that are unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, according to NewsGuard - a media rating company, that provides a rating service on news websites and online information sources – a large number of unverified accounts, on different social media platforms, shared information about the attack in question without any basis in truth, deploying the same mystification strategies that had already been used in the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
In summary, in consideration of the urgency and severity of the matter, the Commissioner recommended that within 24 hours Musk should contact Europol and other relevant law enforcement agencies, reminding X that, in case of non-compliance, a penalty of 6% of its income would be imposed or the site would be banned from the EU altogether.
Following the Commission's intervention, X moved to comply with its requests, firstly by removing hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the platform, also announced X's commitment to take action to remove thousands of items, especially destabilising ones, as well as distorted videos and anti-Semitic comments.
The problem with online disinformation is very wide-ranging, and does not only involve X. In this regard, Meta also took action from the beginning of the attack on Israel to remove all information that was not real and verified, also blocking any comments outside the standards of civility and truth. Mark Zuckerberg's company has already announced the removal of a great deal of content, overcoming language barriers thanks to the collaboration of a special operations centre set up with Arabic and Hebrew language experts.
