The European Commission is keeping a close eye on Elon Musk.
In recent months the boss of X (previously known as Twitter) has been taking an increasingly close interest in European affairs.
On Thursaday he is due to take part in a live event with the leader of Germany’s far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The event will be livestreamed on X.
Musk has expressed his support for the AfD. He has also expressed support for the UK’s Reform Party (previously known as the Brexit party), although he appears to have fallen out with Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage.
The European Commission said today that as the chief exec of a powerful social media firm, Elon Musk has some responsibilities under EU law.
“Mr. Musk is allowed to express his personal views, his political opinions in the EU, online and offline. This is his right…
[But under the EU’s] Digital Services Act, when you have a platform, you need to make sure that the platform operates within the legal boundaries and that the platform is not misused in such systemic risks relating, for example, to electoral processes or civic discourse”, said the EU’s spokesperson for tech affairs, Thomas Regnier.
Under EU law, freedom of expression is considered a fundamental right. However, online platforms are required to mitigate against “preferential treatment or visibility given to content on a given platform, including content from Mr Musk on his own platform”, Thomas Regnier added.
The EU already has proceedings open against X including for a suspected breach of “management of risks on civic discourse and electoral processes”.
Germany’s national election is taking place next month so Musk’s vocal support for AfD comes at a sensitive moment.
Some commentators and X users have suggested that Elon Musk’s posts appear with unusual prominence over other people’s.
The EU hinted today that that could be a breach of the law.
Back in July, the European Commission’s preliminary findings were that X had broken the Digital Services Act in a number of areas.
“X has the possibility to defend itself. We’re still in that process”, Thomas Regnier said today.
X’s European headquarters are in Ireland. That means the Irish Data Protection Commission must be heavily involved in monitoring X and upholding EU law.