Analysis
EU to Musk: Stay out of elections
The Commission believes that X may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) in terms of content moderation and risk management in public discourse and electoral processes.
The EU Commission has issued a warning to Elon Musk, who is becoming an increasingly troublesome figure on both sides of the Atlantic. In particular, the Commission is concerned about the delicate political situation in Germany, the largest country in the Union, which will go to the polls for early elections on February 23, with Musk already announcing his support for the far-right AfD party.
X, the social media company owned by Musk, is in Brussels’ crosshairs: as a platform with about 112 million EU users, it falls under European jurisdiction and has already been subject to formal proceedings by the Commission since mid-December.
The Commission believes that X may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) in terms of content moderation and risk management in public discourse and electoral processes. As the Commission explained, large platforms have an obligation to analyze and mitigate the risks that arise from their management of content that is given particular prominence – including the content spread by Musk himself on the social networking site he owns, to the point that there is no one watching the proverbial watchman.
“Nothing in the DSA prohibits any platform to have a live stream and to express personal opinions,” a Commission spokesperson once again pointed out, referring to Musk's postings on the social media site he owns and the tycoon's announced interview with AfD leader Alice Weidel on Thursday. However, “in the context of the current X proceedings, the Commission will look into the systemic risks that can come from certain practices on the platform … What we want is that the owner of the platform and the platform provider make sure that the platform is not misused or giving preferential treatment.”
Sandro Gozi, MEP and member of the leadership of Renew Europe, has condemned the EU executive's position as timid and ineffective. “It is unacceptable for the European Commission to limit itself to vague statements about Elon Musk’s freedom of expression while failing to act against clear violations of the Digital Services Act by the platform X. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that Musk is exploiting X to interfere in the democratic processes of EU Member States, supporting far-right extremist movements,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
The Musk case also has an Italian connection that the EU cannot ignore. After Giorgia Meloni's visit to Mar-a-Lago in an attempt to secure support for the release of Cecilia Sala from the Iranian prison in Evin, the Bloomberg website broke the news of a deal being discussed with Musk, who also owns SpaceX, to provide satellite communications services via Starlink for the Italian state. But the possible use of Starlink to supply an EU country would have a direct impact on Brussels, which only a few weeks ago unveiled its own project for a satellite communication system, IRIS2.
“We have not received any information” from Italy on the Starlink contract, said EU executive spokesman Thomas Regnier on Monday, while stressing that Italy will be part of the EU satellite project. The problem is that the European secure communications project will take years to be implemented.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ue-x-non-puo-avvantaggiare-alcuni-candidati on 2025-01-07