Report from Euronews
In Brief – As expected, the European Commission has announced the expansion of its ongoing investigation of X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to include reviewing the operations of its recommender systems, including the algorithms that determine the content that users will see. The move follows Elon Musk, X’s principal owner, engaging in a series of high-profile interventions in political debates in numerous countries, generally criticizing progressive government officials and backing populist conservatives. In Germany, Musk hosted a lengthy one-on-one interview on X with Alice Weidel, the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a political party that has long been accused of neo-Nazi views by opponents on the political left, but also by many traditional, mainstream conservatives. This followed highly critical comments calling on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign based on allegedly failing to effectively address so-called “child grooming rings” in the UK a decade ago. As European leaders called for Musk to face sanctions for what they called election interference, a European Commission spokesperson said that the DSA protects free expression but also requires digital platforms to restrict the spread of objectionable and illegal content, and that the EU executive would be looking into how X might be improperly boosting or recommending election content, as part of its ongoing investigation of X.
Context – The DSA is intended to press platforms to stop the circulation of illegal and objectionable content online. Its backers have consistently argued that it protects free expression and claim that government judging how platforms accelerate or decelerate the circulation of content is different. Critics disagree. Now, trying to make the case that regulating how X promotes Musk’s own posts is not actually regulating Musk’s posts will be quite a stretch. And other US tech leaders under scrutiny in Europe will likely back President Trump taking a hard line on his top concern – online censorship. Of course, the Commission will argue it’s not just X algorithms, they are investigating TikTok, its algorithms, and the now aborted elections in Romania.