_selman_gedik_-_shutterstock__xlarge.jpg "EU vs X… again")
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EU vs X… again
The European Commission has launched a new investigation into X following outrage over the use of its AI tool, Grok, to generate and distribute sexually explicit images of women and children.
The investigation, being conducted under the Digital Services Act (DSA), will look into whether Elon Musk’s company properly assessed and mitigated the risks linked to the deployment of Grok's functionalities in the EU.
X… or W?
Formal proceedings were already underway against X regarding systemic risks in its recommender systems. Now Grok itself is specifically under investigation – and for more than just sexual content, with calls to investigate it for other alleged infringements of EU law, including antisemitism, dating back at least to last summer.
The Digital Services Act is the EU’s landmark law that regulates big online platforms, making them more accountable for illegal content and disinformation in order to tackle societal risks online. It enforces the principle that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. X was already fined 120 million euros in December for breaching transparency rules under this regulation.
For its part, the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act uses a risk-based framework to govern AI systems, looking out for such things as bias, discrimination and accountability gaps. Prohibited AI applications are banned, while high-risk systems face strict, enforceable obligations.
During the plenary session in Strasbourg last week, MEPs called for stricter enforcement of EU legislation to protect Europeans from fake and/or harmful content. Calls that have, at least in part, been answered by the Commission’s actions this week.
On announcing the new investigation on Monday (26 January), Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier stressed that the US-based social media platform’s decision to partially restrict access to these image-editing functionalities changed nothing. His statement is shared by Latvijas Radio.
Thomas Regnier, European Commission Spokesperson (in English):
“We have seen over the last weeks and month, antisemitic content. We have seen non-consensual deepfakes of women, and we have seen child sexual abuse material. In Europe, no company will make money by violating our fundamental rights. One [may] argue that X has limited this to premium subscribers. Let's be very clear, child sexual abuse material is not a premium privilege. [...] Such output has no place in Europe, and we need to protect our citizens from potential future harm.”
Following the Parliament’s Strasbourg session, S&D member Emma Rafowicz spoke to our French member station euradio about all the many ways social media platforms can pose a threat – particularly in Europe.
Emma Rafowicz, Member of the European Parliament – S&D, France (in French):
“What I am asking is that if these platforms do not comply with our laws, they should be banned on the European continent. […] I know that they are part of the lives of many citizens, but today they are also a danger. A danger to women, a danger to children, a danger – and this is no small matter – to our democracies… We saw the role played by Elon Musk’s platform X, particularly in the campaign of Alice Weidel, the candidate for the AFD, the far-right neo-Nazi party in Germany. We saw the role that TikTok played in disrupting the Romanian elections by favouring the far-right candidate. We see this everywhere across Europe. These platforms are being used by reactionary international forces to interfere in elections in Europe.”
On 19 January, Rafowicz and 53 other MEPs also wrote an open letter to the Commission calling for European alternatives to X. And rather coincidentally, the very next day, a brand new – and wholly European – social media network named ‘W’ was announced.
But what precisely does it mean for a social media network to call itself ‘European’? Our colleagues at The Europeans put this question to Nina Lamparski, deputy head of global digital investigations at AFP Fact Check, a branch of Agence France-Presse.
The experienced fact-checker, who is also a member of the Euranet Plus fact-checking team, explains.
Nina Lamparski, Digital Investigation Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Agence France-Presse (in English):
“That means it's built in Europe, hosted in Europe, governed by European rules, and importantly, not owned by Elon or any of the other US tech bros. [...] And the aim of W is to basically fight disinformation instead of spreading it, which we know other platforms are really good at; to protect our data – another key point within the European space; and also to make sure that the users are real people, not anonymous or fake accounts. So that means you'll have to provide a valid ID in order to sign up, which is very different from X, because X allows you – and even encourages you – to join without proving who you are. For Musk, the right to stay anonymous basically protects free speech. I'd argue that it just protects horrible people saying horrible things online.”
Lamparski has also done a bit of a background check on W. She tells The Europeans that it is owned by a Swedish climate action platform called We Don't Have Time, which may be where the ‘W’ originally comes from – or it may just be that W comes before X in the alphabet!
Its CEO, a Swiss privacy and data protection expert called Anna Zeiter, has been dealing with AI and user data at eBay for more than a decade and has publicly declared that systemic disinformation is both eroding public trust and weakening democracies.
W also has an advisory board made up of former ministers and business figures, mostly from Sweden, but the people who work for it are scattered across Europe.
The platform is due to be rolled out, gradually, from March and it is anyone’s guess how it will fare. It could go either way, argues Lamparski.
Nina Lamparski, Digital Investigation Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Agence France-Presse (in English):
“Some users might actually be reluctant to hand over their ID for verification precisely because they want to protect their data. And we all know of many hacking instances in the last few years, where millions of personal infos have been leaked. But then in light of current events – like Trump threatening to invade Greenland – leaving X may become a political, or even philosophical, choice for Europeans. It may not just be about audiences anymore. It may be about something much bigger than that: actually taking a stance.”
https://www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes/a-social-network-for-the-wtf-era
Examining the manosphere
I’d now like to welcome back another member of the Euranet Plus fact-checking team, Linda Givetash, on a separate – albeit related – matter.
“Hi Jo, thanks for having me!”
Hi Linda. In your latest fact-checking report, which you have written with input from across the Euranet Plus network, you look at whether the EU’s equality policies are being jeopardised by the so-called ‘manosphere’. Firstly, for anyone who has not yet come across the term, what is this ‘manosphere’?
“So, what we call the manosphere is a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting misogyny, masculinity, and opposition to feminism. Its discourse has been festering online for well over a decade, even prompting at times violent rhetoric. At a time when the European Union has increasingly attempted to address gender inequality through policy, manosphere narratives fuelled by disinformation and AI are spreading, particularly among youth.”
And there are suggestions that these narratives are having a wider political impact, aren’t there? On the growing influence of the far right in a number of member states, even.
“As the far-right has made gains in Europe, a UN Secretary General’s report warned that the expansion of the manosphere coincides with growing conservatism among young men, meaning we may be seeing more of this rhetoric.”
Indeed, there are very real fears that influencers and algorithms in the manosphere are targeting vulnerable young men and boys, who are already struggling with their self-worth, particularly in this challenging economic climate.
This issue has gained public attention through the recent Netflix series Adolescence, and also through scandals surrounding misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate, who has faced various charges of rape and human trafficking.
At the same time, the EU launched, last March, its roadmap for women’s rights, aimed at bolstering women’s equity in society.
With all of this in mind, the first claim that you fact-checked is that European policies are pushing an anti-male agenda, with women now having an ‘unfair advantage’. What did your investigation reveal?
“Well, policies supporting women are not at the expense of men – rather, they are just helping them catch up in areas like the workplace and positions of power that remain dominated by men. To give you a few figures, we found that the employment rate for men stood at 80 per cent in 2023, while it was 70 per cent for women. Women on average also earned about 12 per cent less than their male counterparts in 2023. And, in government, women made up just 32 per cent of seats in both chambers of national parliaments of the EU in 2020.”
Another claim is that heterosexual men are essentially being blocked from expressing their sexuality. What is your response to this?
“These policies are certainly not intended to prevent men from having sex, but rather they’re to ensure women's safety from violence, particularly rape, and to guarantee them consensual sex. […] Some may view the question of consent and equality as obstacles to the expression of male sexuality, but the need to protect women is indisputable.”
And do you have any figures to share with us here?
“A survey of women in the EU released in 2024 found that one in six women have experienced sexual violence in their adulthood. It also found that more than 4 per cent of women had experienced sexual harassment at work in the last 12 months, and 31 per cent during their entire adulthood.”
Yet policies designed to combat violence against women and girls – including the Istanbul Convention, a legally binding international treaty that came into force in the EU in October 2023 – still face resistance from the so-called ‘anti-gender movement’ and conservative religious groups. The same groups also promote the image of ‘tradwives’ – in other words, women who take care of the children and the home and do not have outside jobs.
Which brings us to another claim you have looked at: that women’s increasing presence in the labour market is directly responsible for our falling birth rates. But you found, I believe, that the picture was a little more nuanced than this.
“According to an OECD report, unemployment rates – for both sexes – and housing costs are major factors contributing to low fertility rates. The report also found that young adults aged 20 to 29 increasingly lack financial independence, with 50 per cent of them still living with their parents in 2023 […]. This means that they are having to delay starting a family of their own.”
And the EU has actually taken action to try to improve the situation for people wanting to start a family – men and women alike – hasn’t it?
“So, the EU tried to sort out some of these imbalances and economic worries with a law, the 2019 work-life balance directive. It’s about helping women who want to start a family. Among other policies, it also ushered in a minimum paternity leave. But there's still a big difference in the amount of paid leave men and women get in the EU, with many men offered only the minimum, while women get much more time.”
To close, it is worth noting – as you do, Linda, in your report – that rectifying such imbalances in the labour market would result in significant economic benefits all round.
“The European Commission reported that ‘the economic loss due to the gender employment gap amounts to 370 billion euro per year.’”
Indeed, the European Institute for Gender Equality estimated back in 2017 that incremental improvements to gender equality in the workplace could increase the EU’s per-capita GDP by over six per cent by 2050, amounting to some two trillion euros over time.
You can find references for all the data Linda has quoted on our website www.euranetplus.eu.
So, thanks, Linda, for another interesting report. See you soon for another round of Euranet Plus fact checking!