The European Union wants to investigate recent changes at X, formerly Twitter. The investigation comes after complaints that X is interfering in European politics.
The European Commission has asked X and its boss, Elon Musk, to hand over internal documents on the recommendation algorithm. The regulator also wants access to information on how the social network moderates or amplifies its posts.
X/Twitter has been under scrutiny for some time, but these new steps follow complaints from German politicians about the algorithm in that country. X is said to promote far-right movements in the run-up to the elections on February 23.
Elon Musk has already spoken out as a fan of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the German far-right party. Therefore, the idea that Musk would use his platform to boost them is not entirely out of the blue. He also streamed a lengthy interview with one of the leaders of AfD, Alice Weidel, last week.
Last week, Damian Boeselager, a member of the European Parliament, also wrote to the European Commission asking it to investigate whether the social media platform is meeting EU transparency requirements. “There are allegations that Musk is algorithmically promoting his tweets. The man may be crazy, but it is unfair if he amplifies who should listen to him,” Boeselager told the Financial Times.
