Elon Musk reportedly thinks it may be simpler to block X in Europe, rather than fix the massive problem with disinformation on the platform.
The issue is now so bad that video game footage has been passed off as news coverage of the terrorist attack in Israel, and Musk himself has been promoting accounts known for racist content and conspiracy theories …
X’s massive disinformation problem
X posts about the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians highlighted the extent of the mess.
Rather than being shown verified and fact-checked information, X users were presented with video game footage passed off as footage of a Hamas attack and images of firework celebrations in Algeria presented as Israeli strikes on Hamas. There were faked pictures of soccer superstar Ronaldo holding the Palestinian flag, while a three-year-old video from the Syrian civil war repurposed to look like it was taken this weekend.
X owner Musk wasn’t helping, directing users to two sources of “news” which had previously been responsible for hoax posts about an explosion near the White House.
Journalists and researchers say that X is now almost useless as a news source.
The European Union recently wrote to Musk, reminding him of the company’s legal obligations.
Since the large-scale, horrific terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, social networks have been plagued by disinformation, hoax videos, and antisemitic hate speech – along with posts glorifying terrorism. The problem has been at its most acute on X, the network formerly known as Twitter.
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton this week sent an urgent letter to X owner Elon Musk, advising that much of the “violent and terrorist content” was illegal, and the company did not appear to be removing it in a timely fashion, as required by EU law.
Musk may block X in Europe
Rather than comply with European law, Business Insider claims that Musk may instead block X in Europe.
In recent weeks Elon Musk has suggested X could stop being accessible in Europe to avoid new regulation enacted by the European Commission.
Musk has become increasingly frustrated with having to comply with the Digital Services Act, a person familiar with the company said. The person added that the Tesla billionaire, who acquired Twitter a year ago for $44 billion and rebranded it to X, had discussed simply removing the app’s availability in the region or blocking users in the European Union from accessing it
Downloads and usage of X have fallen dramatically under Musk’s ownership, Apptopia recently reported that the rate of decline is worsening, with downloads down by almost 30% between July and September, and daily usage down by up to 40% in some regions.
Blocking the app in Europe would further reduce usage by around 9%.
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