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Elon Musk’s social media platform X has removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to label or remove “tens of thousands of pieces of content” in the days after the Hamas attack on Israel, said the firm’s CEO Linda Yaccarino, on Thursday (Oct 12). 

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This comes after European Union commissioner and self-styled “digital enforcer” Thierry Breton raised alarm about a surge of online disinformation, especially over the Israel-Hamas conflict and demanded to know what Musk was doing to mitigate it. 

X CEO defends social media platform

Since Hamas launched a surprise weekend attack on Israel, the EU industry chief gave the social media platform’s owner a 24 hour-ultimatum to tackle the disinformation to comply with new EU online content rules, which require the removal of illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.

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“So far since the start of the conflict X has identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform,” said the X CEO on the social media platform. 

The X CEO also said that the microblogging platform had redistributed resources and refocused internal teams to address the rapidly evolving situation but did not mention any specific changes. 

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In a letter dated Wednesday, Yaccarino wrote that it had also taken down posts that involved “violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media”.

She added that the Musk-owned social media platform assembled a leadership group to assess the situation shortly after the attack.

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“We wish to reiterate that we welcome further engagement with you and your team, including a meeting, to address any specific questions and look forward to receiving further specifics to which we can respond,” the X CEO said in the letter to the EU official. 

What was the EU’s warning?

The X CEO’s response came days after Breton sent a letter to its owner Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, demanding that each of them provide details within 24 hours on how “illegal content and disinformation” is being removed from their platforms in line with the EU’s recently-implemented Digital Services Act (DSA). 

According to the X CEO, the microblogging platform has responded to more than 80 take-down requests received in the EU within required timelines, but has not received any notices from Europol regarding illegal content on the platform. 

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The DSA requires large online platforms, including X and Meta to remove illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.

The legislation came into effect back in August and can lead to fines running as high as six per cent of a company’s global turnover.

(With inputs from agencies) 

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