Elon Musk is being called out by a leading EU diplomat regarding Twitter’s spread of disinformation.
Special emphasis was placed on the app doing very little to help curb the Kremlin propaganda. The uproar began when the billionaire opted to put an end to the free access to its APIs, which many felt was controversial for obvious reasons.
And now, the EU is taking special notice of Twitter’s behavior while claiming it’s a huge threat as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues.
At this moment in time, Russia is taking part in an aggressive decision to make use of disinformation as a blanket to cover up its wrongdoing in Ukraine. Therefore, leading figures in the EU have now opted to conduct in-depth research into the workings of various social media apps and what role they play in making Russia’s spread of propaganda an easier task.
But the special emphasis was made on the likes of the Twitter app and its respective new chief Elon Musk. He was named and shamed for forbidding free access to APIs as this move was called out as a huge step in the wrong direction from what the company’s commitments happened to be in the past.
In 2018, Twitter vowed to tackle the growing issue linked to fake reports but now, it appears to be doing very little on this front. But that’s not all. The EU has respectively witnessed the banning of top Russian media sources since the month of March last year.
Therefore, Twitter, by law, was required to stop hosting any form of media outlets belonging to the nation that was backed by its Kremlin, including subsidiaries. And if there was a failure of doing so, the consequences would be a ban by the EU.
A lot of research of this kind has come into play since the likes of 2018 when an entire Disinformation Code had been put forward. There’s a lot to understand here regarding the various techniques and strategies used to heighten and spread false reports so that the public can be manipulated. It similarly erodes all forms of trust between different institutions and goes about interfering with the likes of free elections too.
But this is clear evidence of how there is a need to do more for the West in order to protect not only themselves but others against different forms of malicious threats. Meanwhile, one major finding from such a report shed light on how such disinformation techniques were made use of by the likes of the Russians to put ahead fake pictures and video content.
They used this to spread and increase propaganda against Ukraine. This also showed how there was a clear threat between actors such as Russia and even China.
For this reason, the EU is not taking any more risks and wants answers from Twitter about its role in this regard. It wants the spread of propaganda to end and also manipulation of information to end as well.
Such firing shots against Twitter would definitely add to Elon Musk’s already long list of woes. For now, the company is yet to release any statement on the matter.
H/T: TechCrunch
Read next: Twitter Allows Its ‘For You’ And ‘Following’ Tab To Default To User’s Preference
Special emphasis was placed on the app doing very little to help curb the Kremlin propaganda. The uproar began when the billionaire opted to put an end to the free access to its APIs, which many felt was controversial for obvious reasons.
And now, the EU is taking special notice of Twitter’s behavior while claiming it’s a huge threat as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues.
At this moment in time, Russia is taking part in an aggressive decision to make use of disinformation as a blanket to cover up its wrongdoing in Ukraine. Therefore, leading figures in the EU have now opted to conduct in-depth research into the workings of various social media apps and what role they play in making Russia’s spread of propaganda an easier task.
But the special emphasis was made on the likes of the Twitter app and its respective new chief Elon Musk. He was named and shamed for forbidding free access to APIs as this move was called out as a huge step in the wrong direction from what the company’s commitments happened to be in the past.
In 2018, Twitter vowed to tackle the growing issue linked to fake reports but now, it appears to be doing very little on this front. But that’s not all. The EU has respectively witnessed the banning of top Russian media sources since the month of March last year.
Therefore, Twitter, by law, was required to stop hosting any form of media outlets belonging to the nation that was backed by its Kremlin, including subsidiaries. And if there was a failure of doing so, the consequences would be a ban by the EU.
A lot of research of this kind has come into play since the likes of 2018 when an entire Disinformation Code had been put forward. There’s a lot to understand here regarding the various techniques and strategies used to heighten and spread false reports so that the public can be manipulated. It similarly erodes all forms of trust between different institutions and goes about interfering with the likes of free elections too.
But this is clear evidence of how there is a need to do more for the West in order to protect not only themselves but others against different forms of malicious threats. Meanwhile, one major finding from such a report shed light on how such disinformation techniques were made use of by the likes of the Russians to put ahead fake pictures and video content.
They used this to spread and increase propaganda against Ukraine. This also showed how there was a clear threat between actors such as Russia and even China.
For this reason, the EU is not taking any more risks and wants answers from Twitter about its role in this regard. It wants the spread of propaganda to end and also manipulation of information to end as well.
Such firing shots against Twitter would definitely add to Elon Musk’s already long list of woes. For now, the company is yet to release any statement on the matter.
H/T: TechCrunch
Read next: Twitter Allows Its ‘For You’ And ‘Following’ Tab To Default To User’s Preference
