It seems that the fate of the controversial American billionaire, Elon Musk, is to remain in the spotlight, even if it is not by his will.
His name is back in circulation after the European Commission published a study this week, in which it asserted that X, meaning “Twitter,” had played a major role in allowing Russian propaganda about Ukraine to reach more people than it did before the war began.
Russian disinformation against Ukraine flourished
The research found that despite voluntary commitments to take action against Russian propaganda by the largest social media companies, including Meta, Russian disinformation against Ukraine has flourished, according to the Washington Post.
The Commission’s year-long study also concluded that allowing misinformation and hate speech to spread without borders would have violated the Digital Services Act, the European Union’s social media law that was in effect until last year.
It also saw that over the course of 2022, the audience and reach of Kremlin-aligned social media accounts increased dramatically across Europe.
Twitter: We will comply with EU sanctions on Russia
Preliminary analysis suggests that the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has increased further in the first half of 2023, driven in particular by the dismantling of safety standards on Twitter, which was behind Musk’s decisions.
Misinformation and threats
It is noteworthy that the European Union had announced that it had taken a much more aggressive regulatory approach towards government-supported misinformation compared to the United States.
The Digital Services Act, which took effect for the largest social media companies on Aug. 25, requires these companies to assess the risks of false information, prevent the worst from being fueled by algorithms and subject their performance to scrutiny.
In addition, European sanctions on Russian state media prompted YouTube and other platforms to ban the likes of RT, the Russian news outlet formerly known as Russia Today that was once one of the most followed channels.
While this study is the clearest sign yet that legal and voluntary measures are not getting the job done, it follows widespread warnings last June from EU Commissioner Thierry Breton that X had work to do to avoid potentially huge fines under the law. Daily subsistence allowance.
