BRUSSELS—Elon Musk’s social-media platform X will face a formal probe in Europe over its handling of illegal content and disinformation in a first test of the European Union’s new online-content law.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said Monday it opened a formal infringement proceeding against X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, under the Digital Services Act. The EU legislation, which took effect earlier this year, requires some of the world’s biggest online platforms to take steps to address illegal content and offer users a way to register complaints about the platforms’ moderation decisions, among other rules.
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the EU investigation.
Monday’s announcement marks the first launch of formal proceedings under the bloc’s new online-content law. The move comes amid heightened scrutiny over how social-media companies are dealing with graphic and sometimes manipulated content related to the conflict in Israel and Gaza.
Online platforms including X, TikTok and Facebook have all had to deal with false and misleading posts since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October. X has faced particular scrutiny over its handling of such material after cutting many of its content and safety policy jobs since Musk bought the company then known as Twitter last year.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said the launch of proceedings against X means “the time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ has come to an end.”
X could eventually be fined up to 6% of its global annual revenue if it is found to have breached the EU’s online-content rules. The opening of formal proceedings against the company doesn’t necessarily mean it will be found to have breached the rules or that it will face sanctions, the EU said.
The EU previously issued a request for information to X, which it described as a first step in its investigation into whether the company is complying with the rules. It has also sent requests for information to TikTok and Meta, among other platforms.
The European investigation into X is focused on the company’s compliance with requirements to counter the spread of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures it has taken to deal with disinformation, the bloc said. Investigators will look at the effectiveness of X’s so-called Community Notes feature, which allows volunteers to add context to posts, and which Musk has praised as a way to make X a more reliable source of information.
A commission official said investigators don’t have a position on Community Notes overall but are concerned about the way the feature functions in the EU, including its ability to provide adequate content moderation in different European languages.
The bloc said it is also looking at whether the way blue check marks are used on the platform is deceptive. Those check marks were previously reserved for users that Twitter deemed authentic and notable, but are now tied to subscription accounts, a change that was introduced in 2022 after Musk bought the platform.
Another EU concern is whether X is doing enough to make data available to researchers, the bloc said.
There is no deadline for the investigation, the commission said. It said investigators would continue to gather evidence and the company would have an opportunity to respond to its concerns.
Write to Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com
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