Summary
The EU is intensifying its investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
This follows Musk’s support for far-right figures like Germany’s AfD leader Alice Weidel, including a livestream alleged to have been algorithmically boosted.
The European Commission outlined new steps, including requiring X to clarify system changes and retain data on algorithm updates, with a deadline of February 15.
Musk’s growing influence, including his role in the incoming Trump administration, has raised concerns. X could face fines of up to 6% of global turnover.
I’m somewhat dubious that they’ll disclose anything close to the effective algorithm.
It’ll be an incomprehensible pile of heuristics that operate on data they won’t provide.
“Boost posts from accounts where
account_flag & 0x00F00” is the algo… Which accounts those are is data.I do expect the EU investigators to follow up on any clear obfuscation of the algorithm. I’m not sure by how much but it will be better than the dog-and-pony show that are US Senate hearings.