EU races to conclude investigation into X’s content moderation efforts

The European Union is reportedly close to deciding whether X’s attempts to combat illegal or harmful content are compliant with the bloc’s digital service rulebook. A probe into X’s risk management and content moderation will be concluded “as early as legally possible,” according to a letter to EU lawmakers seen by Bloomberg. It comes a day after Meta announced sweeping moderation changes on its own platforms inspired by X.

In the letter, the EU’s justice chief Michael McGrath and tech policy leader Henna Virkkunen vowed to “energetically” push the investigation forward. Bloomberg reports that the letter was prompted by a complaint from center-right German lawmakers over concerns regarding Elon Musk’s promotion of Germany’s far-right party leader on X.

The probe was launched under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) in December 2023, with a focus on “the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel,” and how effective X’s Community Notes system is at tackling information manipulation. Additionally, the same investigation yielded preliminary findings that found X to be in breach of DSA regarding advertising transparency, dark patterns, and its “blue check” user verification system. Platforms deemed to have breached the DSA risk fines of up to six percent of their global yearly revenue.

Since purchasing X (previously known as Twitter) in 2022, Elon Musk has transformed its verification system into a subscription service and cut back its trust and safety team to focus on community-driven moderation. The EU criticized X over rising levels of disinformation on the platform, something that Musk himself actively engaged in promoting, following these changes. More recently, Musk has landed himself a position on President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, which has issued threats over perceived biases in moderation.

US tech giants are already heeding to Republicans’ complaints regarding online speech rules. Yesterday, Meta announced it was inspired by X to scrap its third-party fact-checkers in favor of implementing its own Community Notes program, alongside removing restrictions around topics like immigration and gender identity. While these changes will initially be rolled out in the US, both Meta and X operate on a global stage — and the eyes of EU regulators are ever watchful.