Nine civil society organisations, including EDRi are urging the European Commission to launch a new investigation against X (formerly Twitter) for alleged breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA). They accuse X of using users' sensitive personal data for targeted advertising, violating the DSA's provisions. They are now calling for Digital Services Coordinators and the Commission to investigate and hold X accountable.
“For instance, AIF uncovered that X allowed Shein, the fast fashion company, to run ads targeting users interested in French far-left politics. X allowed Total Energies, the multinational energy and petroleum company, to run ads on its platform, excluding users interested in ecologist political figures. X enabled McDonald's, the fast food chain, to run ads excluding X users interested in McDonald's own trade union as well as users with interest in antidepressants and suicide,” notes EDRi in its announcement.
This call for a new investigation comes on top of existing DSA proceedings against X. The Commission has already opened formal proceedings to assess whether X has breached the DSA regarding risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers. The Commission has also requested internal documents related to X's recommender system and changes made to it, as well as a “retention order” requiring the platform to preserve documents related to its algorithms.
“The civil society organisations have filed the complaint with Digital Services Coordinators in France, Germany, and the Netherlands and call on these authorities to protect people and communities from discriminatory or exploitative profiling that undermines their rights by promptly investigating X’s behaviour,” notes EDRi.
Violations of the DSA can result in fines of up to 6% of a company's annual global turnover.
Illustration made with Chat GPT
