X asked to spell out content moderation and resources
The Commission is looking into ‘risk assessments’
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The European Commission has sent the Elon Musk-run X a request for information (RFI) under the Digital Services Act (DSA), seeking more details on the company's content moderation activities and resources, on the risk assessment conducted by it about the implementation of generative AI tools in the European Union (EU) as well as on other areas covered by the ongoing proceedings. In December last year, the Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether X might have breached the DSA in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.
Now, the Commission has requested X to provide detailed information and internal documents on its content moderation resources in light of its latest Transparency report under the DSA, which showed that the platform has curtailed its team of content moderators by almost 20 per cent since the preceding report in October last year, reducing linguistic coverage within the EU from 11 official languages to seven.
The Commission is also looking for more information on "risk assessments and mitigation measures related to the impact of generative AI tools on electoral processes, dissemination of illegal content, and protection of fundamental rights".
"The request for information is a step further in an ongoing investigation," the EU said. "It builds upon the evidence gathering and analysis conducted so far, including in relation to X's Transparency report published in March 2024 and X's replies to previous requests for information, which addressed, among others, mitigation measures for risks linked to generative AI," it added. Further, the Commission stated that X will need to provide the requested information related to content moderation resources and generative AI by May 17, and for the remaining questions by May 27.
