Elon Musk-owned social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is facing regulatory action in Europe. A report has said that 9 civil society organisations have filed complaints with EU and French regulators, alleging that Musk's platform is using users' sensitive data for targeted advertising, potentially violating EU tech rules.
As per a report in news agency Reuters, the organisations – AI Forensics, the Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe, Entropy, European Digital Rights, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. (GFF), Global Witness, Panoptykon Foundation, Stichting Bits of Freedom, and VoxPublic – have submitted their complaints to the European Commission and the French media regulator Arcom this week.
The group wants European Commission to investigate potential rule violations
The group is urging both regulators to take action under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which explicitly prohibits advertising based on sensitive user data like religion, race and sexuality.
“We express our deep concern regarding the use by X of users' sensitive personal data for targeted advertisements,” the organisations were quoted as saying. The report says that concerns of the group arose after reviewing X's Ad Repository, a publicly accessible database mandated by the DSA.
"We found that major brands as well as public and financial institutions engaged in targeted online advertising based on what appear to be special categories of personal data, protected by Article 9 of the GDPR, such as political opinions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and health conditions,” they said.
The group is calling for regulators to investigate X for these alleged breaches of the EU's data privacy law, GDPR.
Earlier this year, a report said that the European Union (EU) may impose penalties on X after preliminary findings indicated violations of the DSA. The New York Times reported that the European Commission identified several areas where the platform allegedly failed to meet the DSA's standards. These included: Misuse of verified accounts, advertising transparency barriers and noncompliance with data sharing rules.
As per a report in news agency Reuters, the organisations – AI Forensics, the Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe, Entropy, European Digital Rights, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. (GFF), Global Witness, Panoptykon Foundation, Stichting Bits of Freedom, and VoxPublic – have submitted their complaints to the European Commission and the French media regulator Arcom this week.
The group wants European Commission to investigate potential rule violations
The group is urging both regulators to take action under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which explicitly prohibits advertising based on sensitive user data like religion, race and sexuality.
“We express our deep concern regarding the use by X of users' sensitive personal data for targeted advertisements,” the organisations were quoted as saying. The report says that concerns of the group arose after reviewing X's Ad Repository, a publicly accessible database mandated by the DSA.
"We found that major brands as well as public and financial institutions engaged in targeted online advertising based on what appear to be special categories of personal data, protected by Article 9 of the GDPR, such as political opinions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and health conditions,” they said.
The group is calling for regulators to investigate X for these alleged breaches of the EU's data privacy law, GDPR.
Earlier this year, a report said that the European Union (EU) may impose penalties on X after preliminary findings indicated violations of the DSA. The New York Times reported that the European Commission identified several areas where the platform allegedly failed to meet the DSA's standards. These included: Misuse of verified accounts, advertising transparency barriers and noncompliance with data sharing rules.
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