By Supantha Mukherjee and Philip Blenkinsop
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Elon Musk's expected hosting of Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, for a discussion on his X platform on Thursday was being watched by the European Commission to check for any spreading of misinformation before next month's German election.
The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) is intended to address illegal content such as hate speech and intentional manipulation to influence elections.
X has been under investigation under the DSA since 2023 over suspected dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of its measures to combat information manipulation.
HOW IS MUSK INVOLVED IN EUROPEAN POLITICS?
Since publicly supporting Donald Trump to become U.S. president last year, Musk has endorsed Britain's right-wing Reform party as well as the AfD on X.
"The traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people. AfD is the only hope for Germany," he posted on X last month.
Musk's endorsement of the AfD, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party designated as right-wing-extremist by German security services, has caused consternation in Berlin, where all other parties rule out working with a party they regard as dangerous and undemocratic.
After a Saudi doctor killed five people in a Christmas market last month in the German city of Magdeburg, Musk called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an "incompetent fool" on X and urged him to resign.
WHAT IS THE EU'S DIGITAL SERVICES ACT?
The DSA regulates big online platforms such as X and Meta (NASDAQ:META) with more than 45 million users per month in the European Union, as well as the app stores of companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Its main goal is to prevent illegal and harmful online activities and the spread of misinformation.
Musk's X was the first company to be investigated under DSA for illegal content, in December 2023.
A company can be fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover for breaching the DSA, and up to 5% of daily worldwide turnover for each day of delay in complying with remedies.
If the infringement persists and causes serious harm to users, the Commission can request suspension of the service.
The Commission has also opened proceedings against Meta and China's AliExpress, Temu and TikTok. All the cases including that against X are still open except for one against TikTok, closed after the video sharing platform addressed EU concerns.
WHAT WILL REGULATORS DO ON THURSDAY?
About 150 EU staff are responsible for enforcing the DSA, both at the Commission's DG CONNECT department in Brussels and the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency in Spain.
Former EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton reminded Weidel on X about DSA rules intended to protect democracy around elections.
Senior EU officials acknowledge the challenge presented by Musk but insist the DSA is up to the job.
"Mr Musk is free to express his opinions in the EU online and offline, within legal boundaries," said Michael McGrath, European commissioner for democracy, justice, the rule of law and consumer protection.
HOW HAS MUSK CLASHED WITH THE EU?
The EU and Musk have clashed several times since he took over his social media platform, then called Twitter.
Before Musk interviewed Trump last August, Breton urged him to comply with EU law as the livestream would be accessible in the EU. X CEO Linda Yaccarino called the letter an "unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US".
The EU has accused X of deceiving users with its blue checkmark, which previously indicated that an account had been verified as belonging to a public figure but was changed to designate a paid subscriber.
Musk threatened litigation, and accused the Commission, without providing evidence, of offering X an illegal secret deal to censor speech. Breton denied this.
The commission has also accused X of failing to provide easy access to searchable and reliable information about advertisements, and blocking researchers from accessing its public data.