European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday that failure to remove pro-Hamas content from its platform could put the company in breach of new EU regulations.
In a letter to Zuckerberg on Wednesday, Brayton urged Meta to "remain vigilant" in removing illegal terrorist content and hate speech during Israel's ongoing war. Breton said the European Commission had seen a "surge in the spread of illegal content and disinformation in the EU" which could put social media platforms in breach of its Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA, which came into force in August, requires tech giants such as Google, Meta and Amazon to take responsibility for illegal EU content posted on their platforms. If these big tech companies fail to remove this content, they could be fined more than 6% of their annual revenue.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I urgently ask you to ensure your systems are effective,” Brayton wrote. “It goes without saying that I would also like you to liaise with the relevant law enforcement agencies and Europol and ensure that you respond promptly to any requests.”
Breton asked Zuckerberg to respond to the EU's concerns within the next 24 hours.
On Tuesday, Brayton wrote to Elon Musk to warn him that X (formerly Twitter) was being used to share similar illegal content. Brayton noted that some of the content had been flagged to the company by "the relevant authorities" but remained on the site.
On Wednesday, Musk responded to Breton on X, asking Breton to publicly flag violating content on X, writing that the company took "public action." Brayton responded: "You are well aware of reports from your users and authorities regarding false content and glorification of violence."
“I still don’t know what they’re talking about!” Musk later told another X user.
Zuckerberg called Hamas's attack "pure evil" in a statement posted to his Instagram Story on Tuesday. "The widespread pain caused by it is devastating, and my focus remains the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region."