Europe’s content police have a new target: generative AI

Brussels wants to show its new digital content rules can bite.

On Thursday, the European Commission announced an investigation into AliExpress, the Chinese e-commerce giant, and asked LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned social network, for more information on how it was complying with the 27-country bloc’s Digital Services Act.

The Commission also said it was demanding that many of the world’s largest social media companies and search engines explain how they handled threats posed by so-called generative artificial intelligence.

The emerging technology — made famous by OpenAI’s ChatGPT service — has been associated with deepfake videos, audio clips and images, and officials fret such content may be used to influence voters ahead of the European Parliament election in June. 

“Enforcement teams fully mobilized,” Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s internal market commissioner, posted on X. 

Requests for information on generative AI were sent to Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram, as well as search giants Google and Bing. Under the bloc’s new online content rules, such requests represent the first step before an official investigation is started.

Many of these companies signed voluntary commitments last month about combating electoral threats associated with generative AI. A senior Commission official, who was granted the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that they welcomed that initiative, but that companies could go further in explaining how they would mitigate such risks.

The companies must respond by April 5 on how they protect against election-related generative AI issues, and have until April 26 to answer broader questions, including stopping the spread of deepfake pornography like that which was recently targeted at Taylor Swift.

The AliExpress investigation marks the first time a Chinese e-commerce company has been targeted for potential Digital Services Act enforcement. Currently, the Commission has separate ongoing probes into X and TikTok. 

The investigation, which does not mean the company has yet fallen foul of the digital rules, focuses on AliExpress’  consumer protection practices related to how Europeans may be able to access illegal products and pornographic content on the platform.

The Commission separately sent a request for information to LinkedIn over concerns it may have infringed on the EU’s new content rules that prohibited targeting people via so-called sensitive data like sexuality, political opinions or race. That came after civil society groups filed a complaint against LinkedIn last month. The social network has until April 5 to respond.

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This article has been updated.