Officials within the European Union have heavily criticised Elon Musk’s Twitter for failing a so-called “disinformation” test set by the bloc.
Elon Musk’s Twitter has allegedly failed a test examining whether it has been sufficiently complying with EU demands on “disinformation”, a report on Thursday has claimed.
A number of social media platforms are said to have taken part in the voluntary test, which was implemented as part of the censorious new Digital Services Act being put into full force by the union this year.
According to a report by POLITICO, Musk’s Twitter was the only major social media platform out of the likes of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, which didn’t meet the union’s demands.
In particular, Twitter is said to have failed to provide the bloc with sufficient data as to how it tackles so-called “disinformation”, with the tech firm also allegedly not providing the EU with a complete report on how it will work with “fact checkers”.
“I am disappointed to see that Twitter’s report lags behind others and I expect a more serious commitment to their obligations stemming from the Code,” European Commission Vice President for Values Věra Jourová remarked regarding the platform’s failure.
Although the cost of failing to abide by the bloc’s new rules on disinformation and censorship is nothing but admonishment right now, the price of failing to comply will soon substantially increase.
Failing the voluntary test will reportedly mean that Twitter may end up coming under more legislative scrutiny from Brussels in the very near future, which may in turn result in the platform being handed hefty fines.
Under the EU Digital Services Act under which the regulations are outlined, social media firms with a userbase of over 5 million users will start facing compliance investigations from September, with tech giants risking penalties of up to six per cent of their global revenues should they be found to have breached the bloc’s demands.
The commission seems to have Twitter in particular in its sights for alleged future violations, with senior Eurocrats having at this point repeatedly threatened the company with sanctions seemingly in response to owner Elon Musk’s stated desire to see the platform embrace free speech.
Although Musk has tried to appease such EU authorities by promising he will comply with demands for censorship, such attempts to bend the knee appear to have fallen on deaf ears, with EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton warning of a future clampdown should Twitter not sufficiently implement Brussels’ censorship regime.
Breton has even threatened Musk that he will see the EU ban Twitter should it fail to implement the moderation changes the EU desires and has even openly redirected Twitter users to progressive-leaning rival Mastodon, despite its history of “numerous vulnerabilities and other security issues”.
