EU recognized Musk’s X as the largest source of Russian disinformation

The EU has published reports on how tech companies, including Facebook, Google and TikTok, are faring in the fight against disinformation. Elon Musk's X platform (formerly Twitter) has been recognized as the largest means of spreading Russian lies and propaganda.

This was reported by Bloomberg.

Vice President of the European Commission Vera Jourova said that the platforms need to act ahead of the national and European elections to be held next year.

"This is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation aimed both internally at the Russians as well as Europeans and the rest of the world. The very large platforms must address this risk. Especially that we have to expect that the Kremlin and others will be active before our European elections," she said.

Most of the major platforms have agreed to work with the EU on a voluntary code of conduct that aims to set industry standards for fact-checking and other measures. The bloc has also implemented a pilot project to gauge the extent of the problem.

"X, former Twitter, who is not under the code anymore, is the platform with the largest ratio of mis- or disinformation posts," Yurova said.

She emphasized several steps taken by the platforms to combat Russian influence. Google told the bloc that in the first four months of the year, it had shut down more than 400 channels that had been involved in Russian disinformation. Meanwhile, Meta said it has expanded its fact-checking partnership to 22 languages in the EU.

As a reminder, Elon Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion and renamed it X. Recently, he has been making controversial statements about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last year, Musk admitted to Pentagon officials that he had a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Representatives of President Joe Biden's administration have discussed whether the United States should subject some of Elon Musk's businesses to national security reviews, including the Twitter deal and the Starlink satellite network.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 26/09/2023