Proceedings against Musks X: EU Commission demands internal documents

The EU Commission is pushing forward the proceedings against Elon Musk’s Platform X and is demanding access to internal documents about algorithms. The Brussels authority announced that the group would be instructed to freeze and store the data.

A spokesman for the EU Commission said the platform would be asked to “provide us with internal documents on any recent changes to algorithms.” These documents would have to be submitted to the Commission by February 15. Secondly, the platform is requested to grant the authority access to certain programming interfaces. This will help with research. The instructions are given because of an ongoing investigation against X.

The responsible EU Commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, said that the Commission’s goal is “to ensure that all platforms in the EU respect our law, which creates a fair, safe and democratic online environment for all European citizens.” The Brussels authority emphasized that these steps were necessary to assess the systemic risks of the platform.

The EU has been monitoring Musk’s activities for some time. Several proceedings are ongoing against X for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The aim of the procedures is to check whether the platform complies with the regulations to curb hate speech and disinformation.

The DSA is seen as a sharp sword against the influence of large platforms. If the platforms do not comply, they face severe penalties – including fines amounting to 6 percent of their total global annual turnover. The EU Commission can also impose daily fines until the problems are resolved. Large services such as Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or X are subject to stricter rules than smaller platforms.

Observers are also concerned about Musk’s possible influence on the federal election in February as well as other elections in Europe, for example in Poland and the Czech Republic, later this year. These fears have been reinforced by Musk’s recent activities.

This includes a live conversation with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel on X, in which Musk supported the AfD and stated that only it could solve Germany’s problems. Musk also repeatedly attacked leading politicians such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a series of X-posts.

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg also caused a stir with his Meta group, which, in addition to Facebook, also includes Instagram, WhatsApp and the short message service Threads. He ended his cooperation with fact checkers in the USA.