The European Union (EU) cited X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter under the ownership of Elon Musk, as the biggest outlet for disinformation peddlers. The bloc also told Silicon Valley firms to improve their vigilance and combat Russia's ideological front as its war in Ukraine continues.
European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova was quoted by Bloomberg Tuesday (September 26) saying social media platforms needed to make decisive steps to prevent Russian disinformation from interfering with the US and European elections over the next year.
She also told reporters Tuesday that the Kremlin was taking advantage of social media apps like X and Telegram, that they become what she claimed as weapons of mass manipulation both within Russia and outside of it.
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Russia Using Social Media as Weapons
The EU recently published reports on how each tech company has been fairing in the battle against disinformation. The reports particularly focused on major tech firms like Meta's Facebook, Alphabet's Google, and ByteDance's TikTok.
The bloc found out that most of the major platforms agreed to work with the EU on a voluntary code of conduct aimed at setting industry standards for fact-checking and other measures and performing a pilot project to gauge the extent of the problem.
Jourova warned that X was no longer part of the code and has been the platform with the largest ratio of misinformation and disinformation posts. There was also a common observation that disinformation actors have significantly more followers than their informatory counterparts in a very short span of time, she added.
The EU reports also provided information about how some tech companies addressed and combatted Russian influence. In particular, Google terminated over 400 channels involved in Russian influence operations in the first trimester of 2023, and Meta said it expanded fact-checking partnerships in 22 languages within the bloc.
These measures were taken as the EU ratified and implemented its platform content regulation, the Digital Services Act, which took effect in August.
EU to X: Comply With Our Rules Or Else
With the law's implementation, Jourova demanded that X should comply with continental legislation.
The regulation would first be tested in Slovakia as it has been a fertile ground for pro-Kremlin propaganda as the country would be holding its general election this week.
Last month, declassified US intelligence reports revealed its Russian counterparts were operating a systemic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian agents and their Western targets.
