French prosecutors have opened an investigation into X's algorithms and a German court has ruled that the network must provide researchers with access to data on political content ahead of the country’s general election.
The European Union has been notoriously slow in reacting to possible breaches of the bloc’s regulations by X, a platform owned by the world’s richest individual, Elon Musk.
This isn’t exactly shocking because, quite frankly, there’s a lot to take in. The European Commission is currently investigating X for six different possible breaches of the EU’s content moderation law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The process is long, and there’s pressure from across the Atlantic, where the big tech CEOs are now all friends with US President Donald Trump and where Musk has been wreaking havoc on the federal government.
A probe in Paris, a setback in Berlin
Still, at the end of January, 12 EU countries urged the Commission to take action against election interference by accelerating ongoing investigations under the DSA.
A few days earlier, the Commission expanded its investigation into X amid concerns that Musk was amplifying disinformation on his platform. He used X to host an interview with the far-right Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel.
“We are taking further steps to shed light on the compliance of X’s recommender systems with the obligations under the DSA,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commissioner in charge of tech sovereignty.
But that was in mid-January. Now, almost a month later, the French seem to have decided to take matters into their own hands. The Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened a probe into X over allegations that the firm manipulates its algorithm.
The investigation is based on a complaint by centrist tech-savvy lawmaker Eric Bothorel, who said in his letter, seen by Politico, that “Musk’s personal involvement in the management of the platform, but also in several elections concerning European countries, represents a real danger and threat to our democracies.”
Separately, Bothorel told Euractiv that he decided to proceed with the complaint “in light of the silence from European authorities.” The prosecutors clearly saw enough to open the probe.
Another complaint is also a part of the investigation. According to the weekly Le Canard enchaine, it says that X “now offers an enormous amount of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+ and homophobic political content, which aims to skew the democratic debate in France.”
A little earlier last week, X suffered a legal defeat in Germany, where a court said the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the February 23rd election.
This means researchers, at least in theory, should be able to probe potential election interference from X.
“Threat to democracy”
It remains to be seen, though, whether X and Musk, who said in December that “only the AFD can save Germany,” will comply with the court’s decision. Still, it sets a precedent for how EU courts may enforce obligations under the DSA.
Only the AfD can save Germany https://t.co/Afu0ea1Fvt
undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2024
An X whistleblower has claimed that the platform has been actively interfering in the US presidential election last year. The anonymous individual wrote that his team “completely changed how the algorithm worked, pushing pro-Trump and right-wing posts to the top of people’s feeds.”
“Perhaps the most unethical part was how we manufactured news stories. One team would write completely fake articles, while another team would artificially boost their engagement metrics to make them go viral,” said the whistleblower.
“We specifically targeted certain groups of people, knowing exactly how to manipulate their views and emotions.”
The French prime minister Francois Bayrou recently said that Musk “is creating a threat to democracies” and that “money should not give the right to rule consciences.”
France's concerns over X's influence can be explained by a long historical tradition of devoting special attention to media literacy education, which is seen as key to preserving democracy. Citizens begin learning digital literacy skills at a young age.
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