The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is being investigated for allegedly breaking EU law on disinformation, illegal content and transparency, the European Commission has announced.

The decision to launch formal infringement proceedings against the company, owned by the US billionaire Elon Musk, comes weeks after X was asked to provide evidence of compliance with new laws designed to eliminate hate speech, racism and fake news from platforms in the EU.

Under the Digital Services Act, which came into force in August, a company can be fined 6% of its global income or be banned from operating across the EU if it is found to have breached the law.

In a statement, the European Commission said it had taken the decision to launch proceedings against X on the basis of its “preliminary investigation”, which allegedly concerned the “dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel”.

The EU will investigate whether search on X boosts blue tick accounts and spreads content that users might mistake as from verified sources in the pre-Musk service.

Earlier this year, Facebook, TikTok and the tech companies Google and Microsoft signed up to a code of conduct laid out by the EU to prepare for the new laws in the DSA.

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