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In a letter sent to the President of the European Commission, a number of MEPs express their concern at alleged abuses committed by X’s owner Elon Musk and call on the European executive to apply the DSA.
The European Commission has been asked urgently to assess whether alleged smear campaigns by X’s owner Elon Musk are in compliance with the Digital Service Act (DSA) and to act following its July decision that X does not comply with the DSA, by 38 MEPs in a letter seen by Euronews.The letter was sent on Thursday to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commissioner for technological sovereignty and Democracy Henna Virkkunen and EU Commissioner for Democracy and the Rule of Law Michael McGrath.“Elon Musk is not only a foreign billionaire, he is a future member of the Trump Administration, who attacks the United States’ greatest allies without batting an eyelid,” the letter said, adding that Musk “is also the owner of a very large platform that uses its social network to promote his personal opinions at the cost of artificial visibility of his posts and misleading content.”The letter, which was initiated by French MEP Nathalie Loiseau (Renew), has been signed by 38 lawmakers hailing from the European People’s Party, Renew, the Socialists & Democrats and the Greens.It asked the Commission to “examine compliance with the Digital Service Act” of Musk’s interventions in the member states’ domestic debate. The MEPs said they had particular concerns about “the interference perpetrated” by Elon Musk “in the German election campaign and, before that, in Ireland”, without elaborating.Musk is backing Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) party in the forthcoming parliamentary elections and held a debate on his social network on 9 January with AFD leader Alice Weidel. The day before, Musk posted on X that “Irish citizens get longer sentences than illegal immigrants. That’s messed up.”Last July, the Commission notified X of its preliminary findings indicating breaches of the DSA. It found that X’s blue checks constitute “dark patterns” that are not in line with industry best practice and can be used by malicious actors to deceive users and that X also failed to comply with transparency rules.Another Commission probe is looking into whether X is failing to do enough to curb the spread of illegal content — such as hate speech or incitement of terrorism — and the effectiveness of measures taken by the social media to combat “information manipulation”.When contacted by Euronews regarding the letter, the Commission said that proceedings against X as well as the monitoring of the platform were ongoing . X did not respond to a request for comment.
