London, UK – Elon Musk’s ‘everything app’, X, is under investigation by the European Union for potential breaches in its privacy obligations that could result in fines of up to 4% of the company’s global turnover.
X, like many tech giants, has its European headquarters in Ireland, meaning the county’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) is responsible for enforcing the EU’s GDPR in this case.
The DPC began looking into X when “media reports first emerged a number of weeks ago concerning the alleged ability of X users to prompt the Grok account to generate sexualised images of real people, including children”, according to a statement from DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle.
X is already under investigation for potential violations of the EU’s Digital Service Act and in member nations like Spain and France. On February 3, French prosecutors raided X’s offices in Paris as part of an investigation into suspected unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse material.
Meanwhile, in Spain, President Pedro Sanchez has ordered an investigation into X after a Save the Children report found one in five young people in Spain – mostly girls – say a fake nude image of them has been generated and shared online while they were still minors.
The EU and its member states have to work together to regulate content on platforms like X, says Sally Broughton Micova from the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), while in conversation with EU Reports.
Whilst bodies like the DPC and the European Commission “can fine platforms for not having the right mitigation measures, it’s the national member states who can take action in relation to actual illegal content”.
Musk has on multiple occasions accused the EU of unfairly targeting his company and using legislation to censor free speech. Last year, after being subject to a €120 million fine from the EU, Musk reshared a thread posted by the U.S. House Judiciary Republicans official X account claiming previously unpublished documents from the European Commission showed the fine was “weak and pretext for censorship”.
As similar rhetoric grows online with regards to this new investigation, Micova says: “If you look at the cases that are being brought [against X], even the leaked documents…none of that was about content, it was about mitigation of risks. The evidence doesn’t support the claim at all.”
The DPC’s investigation is likely to conclude in several months.
Featured image: Due to anti-Semitic and Nazi content on X (Twitter), Elon Musk is now losing major advertising clients.
Author: Alain Jocard
Source: Heute.at
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