Company X, formerly known as Twitter, may soon find itself in a heated debate with European Union officials over the amount of misinformation on its platform. According to the European Union’s new report, the platform plays a major role in the spread of misinformation. In fact, it is even more effective than its bigger rivals in this regard.X is in trouble
The EU shared its findings in its first report on platforms’ fight against misinformation and disinformation as part of the Digital Services Act. The recently enacted sweeping law requires major platforms to disclose details about their handling of misinformation. Dozens of companies have also adopted a voluntary “Code of Practice” on disinformation. X, led by Elon Musk, said in May that it withdrew from this voluntary agreement but would adhere to stricter disinformation policies required under the Digital Services Act.
The report finds that X outperforms many of its larger rivals when it comes to the volume of disinformation on its platform and the engagement such posts attract. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said in her statement, “X… is the platform with the highest rate of false/disinformation shares.” The report also found that X ranks highest in discoverability of misinformation and disinformation, followed by Facebook and Instagram.
X’s Global Government Affairs account shared a series of posts on this topic and objected to the “framing” of the data. X also stated that it is committed to being part of the Digital Services Act and implementing its rules. While Jourova stated in her statement that all platforms must comply with the rule, “My message for Twitter/X is that you have to comply. We will be watching what you do.” He gave an ultimatum to the platform with his statements. On the other hand, X has started labeling posts containing false information with its Community Notes feature for a while now. We can say that this is the most concrete step taken by X to detect and prevent the spread of misinformation.
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