The European Commission said on Friday it is stepping up its investigation into whether Elon Musk’s X social media network breached EU rules on content moderation with requests for information and an order for it to withhold relevant documents.
The commission, which began its investigation against X in December 2023, asked the company to provide by February 15 internal documentation related to its recommender system that makes content suggestions to users and any recent changes made to it.
“Today we are taking further steps to shed light on the compliance of X’s recommender systems with the obligations under the DSA,” EU chief digital officer Henna Virkkunen said in a statement, referring to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA ).
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The commission dismissed reports earlier this week that it was reviewing its investigations of major tech companies, stressing that they are proceeding as normal and that President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House did not affect his commitment to enforce its laws.
Trump, who takes office as the 47th president on Monday, has been critical of various EU policies. Buoyed by his stance, other CEOs, such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, have sought his help to fight EU regulations.
Meta last week canceled its fact-checking programs in the US, and Zuckerberg said he would work with Trump to push back on censorship around the world, highlighting the growing number of laws institutionalizing censorship in Europe.
X owner Musk, who is a Trump ally, has also repeatedly clashed with EU regulators and angered leading European politicians by backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany’s election last month. future and supporting Britain’s right-wing Reform party. .
Some European politicians have accused Musk of meddling in the election, such as with his broadcast conversation with the AfD leader.
Musk has said that the criticism is an insult to democracy and free speech.
The commission has said Musk is free to speak his mind and can hold live broadcasts with politicians, but is assessing whether algorithms promote a single narrative and “ban” other views, thus posing a risk to fair elections.
The free speech debate has focused on the EU’s DSA, which aims to tackle illegal content such as hate speech and election interference.
The commission issued a “retention order” requiring X to retain internal documents and information on future changes to the design and operation of its recommender algorithms for the period from January 17 to the end of 2025.
He also requested access to some of X’s technical interfaces to his content that would allow direct retrieval of facts on content moderation and virality of accounts.
“These steps will allow the Commission’s services to take into account all relevant facts in the complex assessment under the DSA of systemic risks and their mitigation,” the Commission said.
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