Israel-Hamas Crisis: ‘We Have Removed Hundreds Of Hamas-affiliated Accounts’ – Elon Musk’s X Tells EU

The micro-blogging platform, X, formerly Twitter, has responded to the European Union concerning its dissatisfaction with the spread of misinformation on the platform about the Israel-Hamas crisis.

Naija News reported on Wednesday that a stern warning was issued to the billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter), against allowing the micro-blogging platform to be used to spread disinformation in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

It was gathered that the EU Commissioner, Thierry Breton, in a letter dated October 10, 2023, and addressed to Musk, claimed that the union has indications that X is being used to spread false information about the crisis.

The EU warned Musk to be transparent and open about what is pushed on the platform, noting that the EU is aware that there are fake and false reports being spread on X, and he has to mitigate it.

The letter partly reads, “Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.

“Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.’

However, the management of X has responded to the EU, saying it has removed “hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts” and taken down thousands of posts concerning the matter.

The X CEO,  Linda Yaccarino, in her response, said the company had “redistributed resources and refocused internal teams who are working around the clock to address this rapidly evolving situation.”

Yaccarino, who took to X, noted that “There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups, and we continue to remove such accounts in real-time.

“X is… addressing identified fake and manipulated content during this constantly evolving and shifting crisis,”

She said X had “assembled a leadership group to assess the situation” shortly after news broke about the attack.

This platform learned that since the attack on Israel, Yaccarino said X had acted to “remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” that break its rules on violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media.

It had also responded to more than 80 “takedown requests” from EU authorities to remove content.