EU urges Big Tech to tackle terrorist content after Hamas attack
tech companies must remove illegal content from their platforms, or risk facing severe legal penalties.
Following the militant Islamist group Hamas' attack on Israel and Israel's retaliatory airstrikes in Palestinian enclave Gaza, social media firms have seen a surge in misinformation related to the conflict, including doctored images and mislabelled videos, alongside images of graphic violence.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisitNorthwestern UniversityKellogg Post Graduate Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisit On Tuesday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton told Elon Musk to curb disinformation on his messaging platform X, warning it was being used to disseminate illegal content and false information in the wake of recent violence in the Middle East.
Breton issued a similar warning to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, urging the company to ensure strict compliance with European law.
In his letters to Musk and Zuckerberg, Breton said their companies had 24 hours to inform the EU how they were stopping harmful content on their platforms.
Now, the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, has sought to remind all social media companies they are legally required to prevent the spread of harmful content related to Hamas.
«Content circulating online that can be associated to Hamas qualifies as terrorist content, is illegal, and needs to be removed under both the DSA (Digital Services Act) and TCO (Terrorist Content Online) Regulation,» a Commission spokesperson told Reuters.
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