LONDON: The European Commission on Monday launched formal proceedings to assess whether Elon Musk’s X violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers. would have been violated.

The Commission launched the investigation based on preliminary investigations conducted so far on a variety of topics, including “the dissemination of illegal material in the context of Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.”

After the formal opening of the proceedings, the Commission will continue to gather evidence, for example by sending additional requests for information, conducting interviews or inspections.

“If proven, these failures would violate Articles 34(1), 34(2) and 35(1), 16(5) and 16(6), 25(1), 39 and 40(12) of the DSA. Will happen. , The Commission will conduct a thorough investigation on priority,” a statement said.

The proceedings will focus on compliance with DSA obligations related to combating the spread of illegal content in the EU, in particular with regard to the risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to combat the spread of illegal content in the EU, As well as the functioning of notice and action mechanisms for illegal content in the EU mandated by the DSA, including the lighting of X’s content moderation resources.

The investigation will also look at the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform, in particular the effectiveness of Effectiveness of policies. This is the first formal action initiated by the Commission to implement the first EU-wide horizontal framework for the responsibility of online platforms, just 3 years after its proposal.

“The commencement of formal proceedings empowers the Commission to take further enforcement steps such as interim measures and non-compliance decisions. The Commission also has the power to accept any commitments made by