Israel Attack: Elon Musk’s X Bans Accounts Linked with Hamas Due to EU Law

Since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) claimed to have taken down thousands of posts and “hundreds of accounts affiliated with Hamas.“

The European Union (EU) earlier this week gave the social media platform 24 hours to remove illegal content and misinformation about the conflict or face penalties under the bloc’s just-passed Digital Services Act.

CEO of X Linda Yaccarino responded to EU representative Thierry Breton in a letter posted to X on Wednesday.

According to her, the company “redistributed resources and refocused internal teams who are working around the clock to address this rapidly evolving situation.

Yaccarino wrote, “There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups. We continue to remove such accounts in real time.

During this crisis that is constantly developing and shifting, “X is… addressing identified fake and manipulated content,” she continued.

Yaccarino claimed that shortly after the attack’s news broke, the platform “assembled a leadership group to assess the situation.”

On X over the weekend, a number of misrepresented videos and other posts went viral. This alarmed experts who keep tabs on the spread of false information and provided the most recent example of how challenging it is for social media platforms to handle a flood of false information during a significant geopolitical event.

Yaccarino claimed that X had taken action to “remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” since the attack on Israel that violated its policies on graphic content, manipulated media, and violent speech. More than 80 “take down requests” for content removal from EU authorities were also addressed by it.

“Community Notes” are displayed on “thousands of posts, generating millions of impressions,” she wrote, allowing users of X to fact-check false posts.

Yaccarino claims that it takes five hours on average for notes about the conflict to appear after a post is made. This information might raise worries that fake or altered content is being viewed by thousands or even millions of people before being moderated.

Breton acknowledged receiving Yaccarino’s letter on Thursday and stated on X that the team in charge of enforcing the Digital Services Act “will analyze the reply and decide on next steps. “

Companies that violate the Act could face fines of billions of dollars, making it one of the most ambitious attempts ever made by policymakers to control tech giants.