On Wednesday, X received the highest ratio of disinformation out of other social media platforms, which the European Union (EU) warned owner Elon Musk about.
The EU analyzed social media networks that are vulnerable to false information. The study showed that X had the highest proportion, with Facebook second in providing fake news.
With the surge of misinformation in the EU, the bloc has banned millions of fake accounts on TikTok and LinkedIn.
The EU has also agreed with tech giants to combat disinformation and misinformation in the social media space. Major companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and TikTok, have already signed the bloc’s proposed Code of Practice on Disinformation.
Despite X’s departure from the code, adhering to the new rules remains mandatory to avoid EU-wide bans. European Commissioner Věra Jourová, head of the anti-disinformation code, said they are closely monitoring X’s action towards the new policy.
Furthermore, other tech giants are addressing the ongoing misinformation issue by banning unsolicited accounts and content.
LinkedIn has banned 6.7 million fake accounts and removed 24,000 fake content, while YouTube terminated 400 channels linked to Russian state operations.
TikTok has barred almost six million accounts, while Google eliminated 300 sites linked to state-fund propaganda and has rejected 140,000 political advertisers.
A study showed that if a platform marks content as fake information, 37% of users cancel reposting it.
Elon Musk Disables X’s Disinformation Report Button
A research organization found that X’s owner, Musk, has disabled users’ election misinformation reporting ability to deter fake news. The move raised concerns about the false claims circulating before a significant US and Australian voting.
Musk introduced the report button feature to combat misleading political information in 2022. However, the researcher noticed that the politics category from its drop-down menu has been removed.
While users can still report posts insinuating violence or hate speech, they remain exposed to political misinformation.
X has yet to provide a comment on the issue.
In recent years, disinformation about politics has rapidly grown. Users unable to take down misleading political content on X came when social media platforms were pressured to curb the spread of fake news on such a topic.
