A coalition of nine civil society organisations has filed a formal complaint against X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, over suspected violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The complaint alleges that X used sensitive categories of personal data to serve targeted ads, an act explicitly prohibited under the EU’s new digital rules.
“We, the undersigned civil society organisations, have lodged a formal complaint with the competent regulatory authorities concerning potential violations of Article 26(3) of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by 𝕏 (formerly Twitter),” says the joint statement.
This complaint is jointly submitted by
- AI Forensics
- Centre for Democracy and Technology Europe
- Entropy
- European Digital Rights (EDRi)
- Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. (GFF)
- Global Witness
- Panoptykon Foundation
- Stichting Bits of Freedom
- VoxPublic
What happened?
The filing comes after the evidence compiled by AI Forensics based on X’s Ad Repository, which indicates that major brands, as well as public and financial institutions, engaged in targeted online advertising based on special categories of personal data, such as political opinions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and health conditions.
Under the recently enacted DSA, which applies to major online platforms like X and came into force in late 2023, such forms of targeted advertising based on sensitive profiling are strictly prohibited.
“This opens the door for a myriad of abuses at scale, including interest groups trying to influence public opinion in ways that can threaten online civic discourse and undermine the democratic process. Regardless of intent, this type of targeting is, we believe, incompatible with the DSA,” says the joint statement.
The report also cited a few examples, such as X allowed Shein, the fast fashion company, to run advertising targeting 𝕏 users who had engaged with keywords related to French politics.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X also allowed Total Energies, the multinational energy and petroleum company, to run ads on its platform, excluding users who had engaged with keywords related to ecologist political figures.
In another instance, X enabled McDonald’s, the fast food chain, to run ads “excluding 𝕏 users who had engaged with keywords related to McDonald’s trade union as well as antidepressant and suicide.”
The report also revealed that a tool that lets people check if X showed them ads based on their data has found that X allowed Brussels Signal, a media company tied to right-wing parties in Europe, to run ads targeting users interested in far-right parties and politicians. This seems aimed at promoting far-right ideas in Europe.
The organisations call on the national Digital Services Coordinators and the European Commission to investigate the potential breach.
“We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call on Digital Services Coordinators and the European Commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminatory or exploitative profiling that undermines their rights by promptly investigating 𝕏’s potential breach of Article 26(3) of the DSA,” adds the joint statement.
