The EU closely monitors X after the Fico shooting, amid an ongoing investigation into DSA disinformation

EU regulators are closely monitoring disinformation campaigns on Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter), following the attack on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. The EU has questioned X over the issue of misinformation in political debates and the effectiveness of the platform’s Community Notes content moderation feature since December last year.

The European Commission (EC) is further analyzing X’s disinformation control measures, which could affect the EU’s ongoing investigation. If X violates Digital Services Act (DSA) regulations, the company could be fined up to 6% of its annual global revenue.

In addition, the EC also called on X and other large online platforms (VLOPs) to be vigilant after the attack on Mr. Fico. The EC is concerned that bad guys will take advantage of the video of the incident to spread false information.

Elsewhere, X also announced that paid users in the EU can finally use Musk’s AI chatbot Grok. Grok is said to be trained to be “politically incorrect” compared to similar opponents. However, Grok is also on the EU’s watch list according to the DSA.

premium users in europe 🫵🇪🇺@grok is now available

— X (@X) May 16, 2024

A senior Commission official said X had delayed the launch of some Grok features in the region until after the upcoming European Parliament elections, but did not detail exactly what those features were. What.

Currently, Grok is only available to paid users of X in the EU, not yet open to the general public. The EC is still assessing whether Grok complies with the requirements of the DSA.

In general, online platforms have a legal obligation to carefully assess risks and implement effective mitigation measures against AI chatbots that generate misinformation. This is an area that the EC is paying special attention to ahead of the upcoming elections.