Elon Musk's X has taken steps to classify or remove tens of thousands of posts, as well as hundreds of profiles linked with Hamas and has defended itself against the European Union's accusations that it failed to tackle disinformation around the violence in Israel and Gaza.
The action was taken in reaction to Musk receiving a 24-hour ultimatum from EU industry leader Thierry Breton to address the propagation of misinformation on X, formerly known as Twitter, since the Hamas attack in order to comply with new EU online content standards.
Breton claimed to have evidence that the European Union was using X to spread false information and unlawful content.
Large online platforms, like X and Meta's Facebook, must delete illegal information and take action to address the threats to public safety and civic dialogue under the recently passed Digital Services Act (DSA).
Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino stated without going into detail about the modifications that X has made in order to address the quickly changing situation. She also mentioned that soon after the attack, a leadership team was created by the Musk-owned corporation to analyse the situation.
"We wish to reiterate that we welcome further engagement with you and your team, including a meeting, to address any specific questions and look forward to receiving further specifics to which we can respond," Yaccarino said in the letter to Breton, posted on X.
The letter claims that X has complied with more than 80 EU takedown requests in a timely manner and has not been notified by Europol of any unlawful content on the site.
On Wednesday, Breton sent a similar warning to Meta, telling the business 24 hours to let him know what steps they had taken to stop the dissemination of false material on their platforms in the wake of the attack on Israel.
The firm´s CEO Yaccarino wrote in a letter dated Wednesday that the platform had "taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content" in the days after Gaza organisation Hamas attacked Israel.
She addressed the letter to Breton, who had traded barbs with Musk on social media on Tuesday after accusing the platform of allowing "violent and terrorist content" to circulate.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Musk bought the platform, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion last year and sparked widespread alarm by gutting its staff, including content moderators, in a bid to save money.
Breton, the EU´s self-styled "digital enforcer", demanded on Tuesday that Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta group includes Facebook and Instagram, provide details of how they were tackling "illegal content and disinformation".
He warned that they needed to comply with the Digital Service Act (DSA), which gives the EU powers to fine platforms up to six percent of their global turnover if they fail to tackle illegal content.
Yaccarino´s letter, reposted by the CEO on her X account, said the firm had removed hundreds of accounts linked to the Gaza organisation Hamas since violence erupted on Saturday.
It had also taken down posts that involved "violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media".
Her letter hailed the importance of the "community notes" system, which allows users to correct or add context to each other´s messages.
Yaccarino wrote that more than 700 notes were added to posts in the first four days after the violence erupted in Israel, and they were seen tens of millions of times.
However, Musk´s leadership since the renewed Israel violence has drawn plenty of criticism, not just from the European Union.
Musk was forced to remove his own post recommending two accounts on X as reliable sources for Israel after many users pointed out they both had a history of spreading misinformation.
AFP fact checkers meanwhile found several posts on X, Facebook and TikTok promoting a fake White House document allocating $8 billion in military assistance to Israel.
And several platforms have had users passing off material from other conflicts, or even from video games, as footage from Israel or Gaza.
The EU recently rated X as the worst of any major platform for illegal online content, and Musk has pulled out of a voluntary EU code of practice on battling disinformation.