Elon Musk’s X is facing a claim it has disabled a feature that let users report misinformation about elections.
Reset.Tech Australia said the feature was stripped from the platform, formerly known as Twitter, in recent weeks – except in the European Union.
The move has fuelled concern ahead of a key Australia referendum that aims to give indigenous people more rights as well as the 2024 US presidential elections.
Reset.Tech Australia called the scrapping of the feature “extremely concerning” as Australia is set to hold a referendum next month.
The group blasted in a warning letter: “There now appears to be no channel to report electoral misinformation when discovered on your platform.”
Australian authorities say the spread of electoral misinformation is the worst it has ever seen.
The tool, available in the US, Australia and South Korea since 2021, was expanded to three more countries last year – Brazil, the Philippines and Spain –
and allowed users to select ‘Report Content’ followed by ‘It’s misleading’ and then ‘Politics’.
Users can still report posts that they consider to be hateful, abusive or spam.
But EU users can still report a post for “Negative effects on civic disorders or elections”.
The feature is not available to users in Britain, and never has been.
It comes after X and Tesla boss Elon has been warned by the EU to comply with its new laws on fake news – after his X platform was slammed for carrying the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media firms.
A report found Facebook was the second worst offender, in the first ever investigation recording posts that will be deemed illegal across the EU under the Digital Services Act, which came into force in August.
Unlike X, Facebook and tech giants including Google, TikTok and Microsoft have signed up to the code of practice the EU drew up to ensure they could get ready in time to operate within the confines of the new laws.
European commissioner Věra Jourová, who is responsible for the implementation of the new anti-disinformation code, said: “Mr Musk knows he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice.
“There are obligations under the hard law. So my message for Twitter/X is you have to comply. We will be watching what you do.
“X, formerly Twitter… is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation followed by Facebook.”
