European Union regulators enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) announced on Thursday that they are closely monitoring disinformation campaigns on X, the social network owned by Elon Musk, in light of the recent shooting involving Slovakia's Prime Minister, Robert Fico.
Since December, the EU has been investigating X for disinformation related to civic discourse and assessing the effectiveness of its crowdsourced content moderation feature, 'Community Notes.' However, no sanctions have been implemented thus far.
On Wednesday, Musk amplified a post by right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong, which attempted to connect the shooting to Fico's alleged rejection of the World Health Organization’s pandemic prevention strategies. During a press briefing addressing recent DSA investigations into Meta, a senior EU Commission official confirmed that they are actively monitoring content on X, looking for additional evidence regarding the platform's disinformation mitigation measures as part of their ongoing investigation.
Notably, breaches of the DSA can incur fines of up to 6% of a company's global annual revenue. Thus, Musk's provocative social media activity may eventually prove costly for the platform across regulatory cycles.
Additionally, the director-general of the EU's communications and tech regulatory department, Roberto Viola, sent a letter to X and about two dozen designated Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) urging them to remain vigilant in light of the attack on Fico. The EU expects these platforms to take immediate actions to prevent the manipulation of circulating footage of the incident aimed at spreading misinformation. VLOPs are invited to share the measures they are implementing to limit the dissemination of manipulated media at an upcoming Commission roundtable event.
On another note, X revealed on Thursday that premium users in the EU can now access Musk's generative AI chatbot, Grok. This tool is designed to be less politically correct compared to competitors like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk celebrated the launch with a brief post, stating, “Grok now available in Europe.”
However, Grok has caught the EU's attention as a part of the ongoing DSA compliance efforts. A senior Commission official indicated that some features of Grok have been delayed in the EU until after the upcoming European Parliament elections, although specifics about the disabled features were not provided.
"X has postponed the rollout of certain Grok features until after the election," the official informed reporters. "This suggests they recognize the potential risks these features may pose to civic discourse during the election season."
The EU has expressed interest in understanding which elements of Grok have been postponed. A Commission spokesperson acknowledged the phased introduction of Grok in the EU, with its initial version available only to X Premium subscribers, rather than the general public.
“The compatibility of Grok with DSA requirements remains under consideration,” they noted. Inquiries were also made to X regarding Grok’s EU rollout, but no response was received by press time. As Grok is exclusively a premium feature, it remains unclear what adjustments have been made for its introduction in Europe.
In discussions about generative AI chatbots like Grok, the Commission reiterated that platforms must diligently assess risks and implement effective mitigations against issues such as "hallucinations," where these AI tools generate false information while presenting it as fact. This requirement was emphasized in the DSA election guidelines, which stipulate that platforms must conduct ex ante risk assessments for critical features, including generative AI assistants. The Commission has conducted inquiries related to risk assessment and mitigation strategies involving generative AI across eight VLOPs and search engines, including X.
This report has been updated with additional information from the Commission.
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