Elon Musk’s Twitter played key role in allowing Russian propaganda about Ukraine, says EU

Elon Musk’s X, formally known as Twitter, has played a significant role in spreading Russian propaganda about Ukraine. The study was published by the European Commission, the governing body of the European Union this week. As per the released report, Russian propaganda about Kyiv has reached more people than before the war began. 

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The report emphasised on disinformation against Ukraine thrived. At the time when the war was about to begin, the largest social media companies, including Meta, have committed to take action against Russian propaganda, reported the Washington Post. The report also concluded that if the EU's social media law was enacted last year then allowing disinformation and hate speech to spread without limits would been considered a crime under the Digital Services Act.  

“Over the course of 2022, the audience and reach of Kremlin-aligned social media accounts increased substantially all over Europe,” as per the study. The report further highlighted that "the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has grown further in the first half of 2023, driven in particular by the dismantling of Twitter’s safety standards." The social media platform has recently changed its name to X. 

In comparison to the US, the European Union has taken a far more active regulatory stance against propaganda supported by the government. The Digital Services Act, which went into effect for the biggest social media companies on August 25, requires them to assess the risk of false information, stop the worst from being boosted by algorithms and subject their performance to auditing. Separately, YouTube and other sites have banned the likes of RT, the Russian news source formerly known as Russia Today which was formerly one of the most popular channels, as a result of European restrictions on Russian official media.

The research was conducted by the nonprofit analysis group Reset, which advocates for greater oversight of digital platforms. Apart from Musk's X, the report has also revealed that Instagram, Telegram and Facebook, owned by Meta, also drew criticism. “In absolute numbers, pro-Kremlin accounts continue to reach the largest audiences on Meta’s platforms. Meanwhile, the audience size for Kremlin-backed accounts more than tripled on Telegram,” since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, wrote the research group. "No platform consistently applied its terms of service in repeated tests of user notification systems in several Central and Eastern European languages," the report added.