EU concerns about the threat of election meddling.

At a press conference on Tuesday, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova urged tech giants to crack down on the spread of disinformation as elections in Europe approach.

Current and upcoming elections have authorities on their guard.

As Reuters explains, major online platforms were recently asked to submit data on their activities focused on cracking down on fake news. But that hasn’t been enough to stifle a recent wave of disinformation focused on the parliamentary elections in Slovakia, scheduled for the end of this month, Poland’s October elections, and European Parliament elections next year. "The Russian state has engaged in the war of ideas to pollute our information space with half-truth and lies to create a false image that democracy is no better than autocracy," Jourova stated. "Today, this is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation…The 'very large platforms' must address this risk. Especially as we have to expect that the Kremlin and others will be active before elections.” 

BBC News notes that the study focused on content in Spain, Poland, and Slovakia, three countries particularly susceptible to the evils of disinformation, and found that X had the largest "ratio of discoverability" of disinformation. Researchers at Reset.Tech Australia have found one possible reason for this: X recently disabled a feature that let users report election misinformation. Coincidentally, Reuters adds, the discovery comes just as Australia prepares to vote on whether to change the constitution to establish an Indigenous advisory body. Alice Dawkins, executive director of Reset.Tech Australia, stated, "It would be helpful to understand why X have seemingly gone backwards on their commitments to mitigating the kind of serious misinformation that has translated into real political instability in the US, especially on the eve of the 'bumper year' of elections globally.” 

Social media are seen as potential vectors for malign influence.

Jourova particularly called out X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which left the EU's voluntary code in May. "Mr (Elon) Musk knows that he is not off the hook by leaving the code of practice because now we have the Digital Services Act fully enforced. So my message for Twitter is you have to comply with the hard law and we will be watching what you are doing," she stated. A recent study from the European Commission showed that X has the biggest proportion of disinformation when compared to fellow social media giants Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. 

X (formerly Twitter) has disabled a feature for reporting election misinformation, Reuters reports. The Information says X has also cut half of its election integrity team, including the team’s head, Aaron Rodericks. X owner Elon Musk said in a post that the team “was undermining election integrity.” The Hill notes that X said last month that it was expanding its elections safety team to “focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closely monitoring the platform for emerging threats.”

Such concerns aren't limited to Europe. Social media in general and X, formerly Twitter, in particular, have been used to establish and amplify disinformation during elections. The US elections in November 2024 are expected to receive a great deal of attention from foreign, especially Russian, disinformation operators.