The European Commission is bumping up its efforts into an investigation into X, formerly Twitter, as the regulator has now officially requested the social media platform hand over its algorithm for evaluation.
The EU has demanded X provide it with internal documentation on the recommendation systems used across the website to serve users' content. The request states X will need to provide documentation on any recent changes by February 15, and to go along with that, the EU also has demanded access to X's commercial APIs "that allow direct fact-finding on content moderation and virality of accounts." Furthermore, the European Commission has requested X provide it with any documentation on recent changes to the content recommendation system and any planned changes between now and the end of 2025.
Notably, the European Commission says these demands fall under Digital Services Act (DSA) proceedings that were launched against it in December 2023, which, if found guilty, could result in mass penalties against X. The Commission was queried whether these new demands were in relation to Musk's recent political maneuverings throughout the EU and the UK, to which the Commission told The Register, "These are investigatory steps that we are taking to have access to additional information ... crucial for the Commission's enforcement work to understand and analyze risk stemming from X's recommender systems."
"Today we are taking further steps to shed light on the compliance of X's recommender systems with the obligations under the DSA. We are committed to ensuring that every platform operating in the EU respects our legislation, which aims to make the online environment fair, safe, and democratic for all European citizens," said Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy