Social media urged to act on violent content after Hamas attack
The UK technology secretary has summoned social media executives to demand the removal of violent content from their platforms related to the Hamas attack on Israel.
Michelle Donelan called the meeting as the European Union criticised Elon Musk’s X platform about coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict on its platform including fake news and the use of repurposed historical footage.
Donelan posted on X on Tuesday night that she wanted to ensure violent content “fuelled by Hamas’ acts of terrorism” was removed.
“I’ve called an urgent meeting with social media companies to ensure action is taken to swiftly remove any violent content fuelled by Hamas’ acts of terrorism in Israel from their platforms,” she wrote. “We are taking action to stand in solidarity with Israel and our Jewish community.”
The coverage on X, formerly known as Twitter, has come under scrutiny amid evidence of disinformation – purposefully misleading posts – on the platform related to the war.
On Tuesday, Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner responsible for the bloc’s landmark digital services act, which regulates social media companies, told Musk that his platform was “being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU”.
Breton added: “I therefore invite you to urgently ensure that your systems are effective, and report on the crisis measures taken to my team.”
Musk replied on X asking Breton to “list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them”.
Research by an Israeli disinformation analysis firm has claimed that tens of thousands of fake accounts are distributing pro-Hamas content related to the conflict.
Cyabra, which has monitored US election disinformation and tracked bot accounts on Twitter in the past, found that approximately 30,000 fake accounts had been spreading pro-Hamas disinformation or gathering sensitive details about their targets. Cyabra said the fake accounts were particularly active on X and TikTok but were also appearing on other platforms.
Media Matters, a US media watchdog, said the attacks represented X’s first test amid a global crisis and had “failed spectacularly” with verified accounts among the sources spreading false information.