Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of the social media platform X, announced that the platform has removed several hundred accounts associated with Hamas and taken action against tens of thousands of pieces of content, either by labeling them or removing them altogether. This was in response to the recent attack by the militant group on Israel. The move came in response to EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s 24 hour-ultimatum to Elon Musk to tackle the spread of disinformation on X – formerly known as Twitter – since the Hamas assault to comply with new EU online content rules.
Breton said he had indications that X was being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the European Union.
The recently implemented Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large online platforms, including X and Meta’s META.O Facebook, to remove illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.
X has redistributed resources and refocused internal teams to address the rapidly evolving situation, Yaccarino said, without specifying the changes. She added that the Musk-owned company assembled a leadership group to assess the situation shortly after the attack.
“We wish to reiterate that we welcome further engagement with you and your team, including a meeting, to address any specific questions and look forward to receiving further specifics to which we can respond,” Yaccarino said in the letter to Breton, posted on X.
X has responded to more than 80 take-down requests received in the EU within required the timeline and has not received any notices from Europol regarding illegal content on the platform, the letter states.
Breton issued a similar warning to META on Wednesday, giving the company 24 hours to inform him of measures taken to counter the spread of disinformation on its platforms following the attack on Israel.
(Inputs from REUTERS)