Europe Claims Musk’s X Is Biggest Forum of Russian Disinformation

Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is the most prolific merchant of Russian disinformation in Europe, according to the European Union. 

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova urged tech platforms at a meeting of the Code of Practice on Disinformation signatories to take stronger action to curb disinformation, warning that the war in Ukraine and upcoming European Union elections next year mean “the risk of disinformation is particularly serious.”

 "X, former Twitter, who is not under the Code any more is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts," Jourova said.

At least 44 companies — including Meta’s Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok, Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Alphabet's Google — are signatories to the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation. X is not.

Russia is engaging in a “war of ideas,” and polluting the EU’s information space via social media and other online forums, Jourova said in a statement to do with the EU’s anti-disinformation efforts.

“This is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation aimed both internally at the Russians as well as at Europeans and the rest of the world,” Jourova said. “The very large platforms must address this risk. Especially that we have to expect that the Kremlin and others will be active before elections.”

The bloc will release a report on Tuesday that weighs the signatories’ efforts over the last six months to combat misinformation on their platforms, Jourova said.

The tech platforms are also meant to have developed ways to track and analyze the spread of disinformation on their platforms, and they’re gearing up to test the approach in three EU countries. Disinformation peddlers tend to have larger followers than typical accounts and these accounts tend to be relatively new, the framework shows.

Musk’s X, which Jourova claimed has the “largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts,” is not a signatory on the Code, and it’s unclear if the platform will participate in efforts to curb disinformation.

Over the last year, reports suggest that disinformation and bot activity has spread unabated on X despite Musk’s claim that he bought the platform to fix these problems. Concerns over the platform’s lax content moderation and safety controls have forced brands to cut back advertising on X. Although the company has recently made a major leadership change to win back advertisers, it's unclear how much effort it has dedicated to fighting misinformation.