2mo ago

EU steps up scrutiny of X as anger grows over Musk’s political meddling

www.politico.eu EU steps up scrutiny of X as anger grows over Musk’s political meddling – POLITICO

Summary

The EU is intensifying its investigation into Elon Musk's social media platform, X, over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

This follows Musk's support for far-right figures like Germany's AfD leader Alice Weidel, including a livestream alleged to have been algorithmically boosted.

The European Commission outlined new steps, including requiring X to clarify system changes and retain data on algorithm updates, with a deadline of February 15.

Musk’s growing influence, including his role in the incoming Trump administration, has raised concerns. X could face fines of up to 6% of global turnover.

15 comments

You got about three weeks, EU. Stop fucking around.

As an American afflicted with this man's influence, I hope the EU tells that arrogant sonuvabitch to go fuck himself. I hope Europe can reign in the influence of big business, because it has become clear we won't.
- I say we make him Emperor of Mars and blast him over there with some of his followers that can afford the ticket.
- Everyone is absolutely right when they say "President Musk."
  Ugh. :(
  
  A very thin silver lining: Trump also doesn't like it when people call the rat such!

Oh look, another member of putin's US regime going out of his way to sour US relations with a major ally.

yeah, yeah, sure, sure, years of "scrutiny" at this point has led to zero consequences, all these stories are nothing but clickbait for ad revenue. stop telling me you're thinking about maybe doing something, so the thing, then report on that
- The European Commission on Friday announced it would add new steps to an investigation that kicked off in December 2023.
  They are doing something, X is ordered to disclose its algorithm to the commission to see if the platform is as neutral and free of censorship as Musk claims, by 15 Feb 2025.
  
  I'm somewhat dubious that they'll disclose anything close to the effective algorithm.
  It'll be an incomprehensible pile of heuristics that operate on data they won't provide.
  "Boost posts from accounts where account_flag & 0x00F00" is the algo... Which accounts those are is data.
  
  disclosure, you say, oooooo harry did you hear, dis clo sure, oooooo la la, that'll show him, that's gonna leave a mark, that disclosure thing i'm sure

deadline of February 15
A week before the elections. great...

...investigation intensifies...

They’re gonna do fuck all about this. Musk knows this and his team is already making hefty „donations”. Democracy is long dead. They’ve been parading a corpse.

15 comments