Meta and X 'giving two fingers to EU': Irish MEPs vow to hold social media giants to account

Earlier this week, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said content moderation policies would change in the US, getting rid of factcheckers and replacing them with a community notes feature, similar to the Elon Musk-owned platform, X.

Irish MEPs have hit out at social media giants Meta and X, saying authorities at home and in Europe would hold them to account and protect countries from foreign interference in elections and illegal content on platforms.

Earlier this week, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said content moderation policies would change in the US, getting rid of factcheckers and replacing them with a community notes feature, similar to the Elon Musk-owned platform, X.

The approaches of both companies have been criticised as allowing misinformation and illegal content to flourish on their platforms.

While Mr Musk is already a close ally of incoming US president Donald Trump, Mr Zuckerberg said the recent American presidential election felt like “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech”.

Mr Musk has drawn criticism for his comments on the politics of a slew of European countries, including Ireland and the UK in recent weeks.

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said social media companies had “decided to turn their guns on the EU’s legislative framework” and both Irish and European authorities “must have the firepower and resources to repel their attacks”.

“We now have a situation where social media platforms are giving the proverbial two fingers to the EU’s own flagship legislation, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act,” he said.

Only they can fully answer for why they have decided to do this but I suspect it’s an attempt to curry favour with the incoming Trump administration.

Mr Kelleher said the Irish regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, would play a pivotal role given so many big companies are based here and it requires significant resources to do this work.

His party colleague and MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú said X was already becoming “a cesspit of illegal, harmful and destructive content” and the move from Meta would send Facebook down the same route.

“These platforms need to realise that the EU will not tolerate a free-for-all,” she said. 

“This is a direct threat to European democracy and will be tackled head-on by the existing regulations that we have in place.” 

Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty said there was no “opt-out option” for big tech firms from their legal obligations but said regulators must step up, given many investigations into alleged breaches of the law by such companies were already ongoing.

“When large platforms can make changes overnight, it's not good enough that investigations go on for months, if not years,” she said. 

“We need swift and strong outcomes where an investigation finds that platforms are bending or breaking the rules. The digital space in Europe is not open to the highest bidder.” 

It comes after Ireland’s new EU commissioner Michael McGrath warned Mr Musk the European Commission would be monitoring if X artificially boosted the reach of a livestreamed talk he will have with German far-right leader Alice Weidel.

He told RTÉ sites such as X have "enormous power" and could amplify certain content above others.

"When it comes to the conduct of elections, we do have to make sure that our elections are conducted in a free and fair manner without undue interference," he said.