Probe to wrap ASAP EU energetically probing disinformation, right-wing bias on X, report says Elon Musk wading further into global right-wing politics raises alarms in EU. Ashley Belanger Jan 8, 2025 12:37 pm | 17 Credit: Tom Williams / Contributor | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Credit: Tom Williams / Contributor | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe European Commission (EC) is planning to "energetically" advance its probe into content moderation on X (formerly Twitter), potentially ordering changes at Elon Musk's social network in the coming months, Bloomberg reported.Since 2023, the EC has been investigating X for possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Notably, it's the group's first formal probe under the DSA, which requires very large online platforms to meet strict content moderation and transparency standards to ensure user safety, reduce misinformation, prevent illegal/harmful activity, and facilitate "a fair and open online platform environment."In a letter to European lawmakers viewed by Bloomberg, EC tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen and justice chief Michael McGrath apparently confirmed that the investigation into X will end as early as legally possible."When the sweeping probe was first announced, the EC explained it would investigate X "in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers."At that time, the EC was concerned about "the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel" on X. The investigation is partly focused on X's potential failure to detect and remove illegal content required by the DSA, as well as on the effectiveness of X's Community Notes and other "related policies mitigating risks to civic discourse and electoral processes."Since then, Musk has become more heavily involved in right-wing politics, campaigning for US president-elect Donald Trump and increasingly using X to support right-wing figures globally, most recently in a posting rampage concerning United Kingdom "grooming gangs." The Financial Times reported that Musk's UK posts appeared to be fueled by a few X accounts that seemingly appeared on his "For You" page, with one former Twitter exec in Europe, Bruce Daisley, suggesting that "Musk has seemingly become the first tech leader to fall down the rabbit hole of radicalization by his own product.Musk also took to X to endorse German far-right leader Alice Weidel, Bloomberg noted, which could potentially be a problem if Musk's platform is found to be favoring right-wing voices and skewing civic discourse in the EU.On Thursday, Musk will host a live-streamed interview with Weidel, and the EC plans to watch it closer than most, seeking "to see if Xs algorithms are used to deliberately boost the live-stream, which would potentially be in breach of the DSA," Bloomberg reported.There's no deadline to conclude the probe. But EC leaders have signaled that its end could be near. If the EC concludes that X violated the DSA, X could be hit with fines of up to 6 percent of its global revenue or be ordered to make changes to comply with the strict law.X could also voluntarily make changes if remedies are requested. In 2023, X said it was "committed to complying with the Digital Services Act and is cooperating with the regulatory process," while emphasizing that "it is important that this process remains free of political influence and follows the law."In the EU, some officials are worried that Musk might possibly be controlling X to boost conservative narratives and influence electionsand that the EC potentially isn't acting fast enough to protect the democratic process.Bloomberg noted that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has urged the EC to "use the tools that weve given it democratically a lot more robustly to discourage this sort of behavior.""Either the European Commission applies the laws weve created to protect the public sphere with the utmost firmness, or it doesnt, in which case it must agree to return the ability to do so to EU member states," Barrot said.X CEO: Community Notes are good for the worldIt seems unlikely that X would ever take a drastic step like abandoning Community Notes in favor of hiring back more content moderators laid off shortly after Musk's Twitter acquisition. At CES 2025, X CEO Linda Yaccarino bragged that Community Notes are "good for the world.""Think about it as this global collective consciousness keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time," Yaccarino said, telling the audience that it was "validating" that Meta now plans to use a similar system over more traditional fact-checking.According to Yaccarino, there are now "almost a million Community Noters" globally, and noted posts are "dramatically shared less."Brand safety on X has supposedly improved so much through Community Notes and new advertiser controls, Yaccarino claimed at CES, that she estimated that 90 percent of advertisers are back on X.That would represent a major shift since Trump's re-election if data that Sensor Tower provided to Ars in October is accurate. The data showed that major brands continued to shy away from X in 2024, with "72 out of the top 100 spending US advertisers on X from October 2022" having "ceased spending on the platform as of September 2024."Ars could not immediately reach Sensor Tower for more current data but will update this story if more information becomes available.As Meta faces backlash over its pivot to an X-like Community Notes approach, experts have noted that there's still limited research on Community Notes' effectiveness. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, which Musk tried and failed to sue over its independent research on X, reported in October that toxic X users were sabotaging some Community Notes by downvoting fact checks they didn't politically agree with to keep the notes from appearing on the platform. Another study last year found that community noters target different posts than traditional fact-checkers. The authors advocated for a multi-pronged approach on popular platforms to quickly check a wider variety of posts than would seemingly be checked by either group alone.The EC's probe could expose flaws in Community Notes in the EU, or it could further give Yaccarino the "validation" X has sought since expanding the fact-checking alternative initially launched prior to Musk's acquisition.Ashley BelangerSenior Policy ReporterAshley BelangerSenior Policy Reporter Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience. 17 Comments