Photo: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (Getty Images) Author: Valeria Polishchuk
The European Commission has opened formal proceedings against Twitter (X) over suspected breaches of obligations. This is the first such investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the press service of the European Commission.
The DSA, which came into effect last November, requires major online platforms and search engines to do more to combat illegal content and risks to public safety, and to protect their services from manipulative technologies.
The European Commission said the proceedings will focus on combating the spread of illegal content in the EU and the effectiveness of measures taken to combat the manipulation of information, in particular the “community notes” system.
Additionally, the focus will be on measures Twitter has taken to increase transparency on its platform and suspicions of deceptive user interface design, such as checkmarks associated with subscription products, so-called “blue checkmarks.”
The European Commission said it will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a priority and will continue to gather evidence through further requests for information, interviews and inspections.
Twitter under Musk's leadership
In 2022, entrepreneur Elon Musk bought the company and the social network of the same name Twitter and became its CEO. Immediately after the purchase, there was a large-scale reduction of employees, in particular engineers, which led to problems in the work of the social network itself.
In particular, the entrepreneur fired the company's entire Brussels office, raising concerns about whether the company will be able to make the necessary changes to comply with EU rules. Failure to comply with the DSA could cost a company a fine of up to 6% of its annual revenue or even prompt the European Commission to ban the platform entirely.
In addition, Musk changed a number of rules of the social network, in particular regarding the spread of Russian propaganda and disinformation, and also made paid services that were previously provided for free.
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