European Commission demands data on ‘dissemination of illegal content’. Companies have until October 25 to respond to the demands
The European Commission (the executive arm of the European Union, EU) announced on Thursday (19) that it has launched investigations into disinformation on the social networks Facebook and Instagram, controlled by Meta, as well as on TikTok, related to the conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
The commission said it had submitted formal requests for additional information to the two companies, a week after launching an investigation procedure against the X network (formerly Twitter).
In the case of Meta, the commission announced that it had requested information about “the dissemination and amplification of illegal content” about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
With regard to TikTok, it demanded information on efforts to prevent the dissemination of “violent or terrorist content and hate speech”, as well as measures to protect minors.
Meta and TikTok have until October 25 to respond to the commission’s demands, and until November 8 to submit more specific information.
These investigations, the commission noted, are based on the obligations of the big platforms under the new Digital Services Act (DSA).
Together with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the DSA is the EU’s attempt to adopt rules regulating the operation of large platforms in Europe.
These two laws aim to prevent the spread of disinformation and illegal content and subject the big platforms to a strict code for removing illegal content and transparency obligations.
Last week, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton sent warning letters to X, Meta, TikTok and Alphabet (owner of YouTube), expressing concerns about disinformation.
So far, X has adopted a more publicly belligerent attitude towards the EU’s demands, and its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, has even demanded that Breton publish his demands on the social network itself.
Those responsible for X published a public response on the same social network, in which they said they had deleted “tens of thousands” of messages related to the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7.