INFO THE POINT. Elon Musk’s social community X focused by a grievance in France | EUROtoday

LThe timing is ideal. This Thursday, January 9, whereas Elon Musk prepares to debate dwell on The MEP has simply filed a grievance with Arcom (Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication) towards X below the European Regulation on Digital Services (DSA).

In her letter to Roch-Olivier Maistre, president of Arcom, the MEP factors out the habits of the boss of Don’t subscribe to his account. » She denounces “messages of attacks on governments and European leaders or of support for the extreme right of the continent”.

Is Musk hijacking the X platform?

The root of the issue? A attainable manipulation of algorithms by Elon Musk himself. “The question must be asked whether Mr. Musk exploits or misuses the platform’s algorithms to promote the propagation of his own messages, to the detriment of the content of his users and in the service of his personal interests and his ideas,” writes She.

The process initiated by Aurore Lalucq shouldn’t be trivial. It is predicated on article 53 of the European DSA regulation, which got here into power in 2022. As a consumer of X and a French resident, she is entitled to contact Arcom, designated coordinator of digital companies for France.

Is X a content material host or writer?

More than a easy consumer grievance, his method raises a basic query: Can X nonetheless profit from the “conditional exemption from liability regime” offered for in Article 1 of the DSA? Clearly, can the platform proceed to be thought-about as a easy content material host when it appears “today devoted, for a large part, to the dissemination of Mr. Musk’s personal editorial choices”, as underlined by the MEP.

Aurore Lalucq’s initiative enhances the motion of the European Commission. Brussels has already clarified to X, on July 12, 2024, preliminary conclusions pointing to violations of the DSA. But the process is slowed down in a authorized battle. The grievance filed with Arcom opens a second entrance, this time on the nationwide stage. If Arcom deems the grievance admissible, it could provoke its personal process, parallel to that of the Commission. Enough to place X below stress on two ranges.

European Commission cautious about Musk’s legal professionals

According to our info, Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, liable for the file, is pushing her companies for outcomes “in terms of weeks rather than months”. The companies are very cautious as a result of they know that Elon Musk has an “army of lawyers” on the opposite facet, as a supply near the matter confides, to defeat any detrimental resolution earlier than the Court of Justice of the European Union. Hence this precaution in gathering proof.

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The matter is all of the extra delicate because the German elections method. Seven weeks earlier than the election, Elon Musk’s activism in favor of the AfD is worrying on the highest ranges. France, via its Minister Delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad, has simply given its assist to Berlin. “Such a powerful private actor cannot act so directly in the internal affairs of sovereign countries,” asserts the minister within the footsteps of President Macron, who spoke of a “reactionary international” led by the proprietor of X.

ALSO READ How far will the extravagant Mr. Musk go? The Musk case poses an unprecedented problem to European regulators. Platform proprietor and influencer with 200 million subscribers, the American billionaire escapes the standard framework. “It’s a special case,” we acknowledge in Brussels. The Commission can be engaged on a “democratic shield” to face these new threats. But, within the meantime, it’s Aurore Lalucq’s initiative which goals to push for a European response.