The European Union"s regulatory body, the European Commission, has officially launched a probe of X (formerly Twitter) to see if the social network has violated the EU"s Digital Services Act.
In a press release, the European Commission stated it is formally looking into several areas where X might not have followed the DSA"s rules. They include the "risk assessment and mitigation measures adopted by X to counter the dissemination of illegal content in the EU" along with the "effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform."
The EC is also examining possible "suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to X"s publicly accessible data" along with reports of a deceptive UI "notably in relation to checkmarks linked to certain subscription products, the so-called Blue checks."
This will be the first time the EC will launch an investigation of possible violations of the Digital Service Act, which was first adopted in April 2022. The EC says it will continue to gather evidence for this case, which may include conducting interviews and inspections along with asking X for more information.
Today"s formal launch of the investigation does not have any legal deadline for when it might end. It also doesn"t mean the EC will "prejudge its outcome". The press release added that it could accept a remedy proposed by X "to remedy on the matters subject to the proceeding."
In June it was revealed that the EU sent a team to X to perform stress tests on the social network to see if it would be in compliance with the Digital Services Act.
X, which has been owned by Elon Musk for over a year, has not offered an extensive comment on this new EU investigation. CNBC reports that an email sent to X for comment got this brief reply: "Busy now, please check back later.”