Good. But when do we drop the “alleged” part in these headlines?
The investigation is specifically about whether X spreads disinformation in a way that is punishable under the DSA, but the headline makes it look like it’s unclear whether X spreads disinformation at all. So I think it’s at least somewhat misleading.
Disinformation on X is pretty much a given, as has been reported many times, see for example X, formerly Twitter, amplifies disinformation amid the Israel-Hamas conflict as reported by CNBC.
This headline is like writing “Police opens investigation into alleged killing” even though the victim is full of bullet holes. It is not alleged that the deed happened, just whether or not a specific individual or organisation broke the law doing it.
The alleged here is rather if musk/X.com is responsible for it according to the law, and/or spread it willingly
It’s good reporting - innocent until proven guilty and avoids defamation lawsuits in the meantime.
This is a good approach in general, but I very much disagree in the case of X. Obvious misinformation is shown right on the front page, and not only since recent attacks on Israel. Elon Musk himself is regularly sharing false information, not to mention the army of blue checks.
As the saying goes: As a journalist, if one person says it’s raining and another says it’s dry, it’s NOT your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the window and see which is the truth.
So instead of rushing out this “EU said this, X said that” kind of article article, I would expect an organisation like the BBC to find out what’s going on.
The misinformation part is obvious but EU is investigating whether handling of this misinformation is done correctly and final charges will likely leverage DSA which is untested. In the end it’ll probably be extremely complex legal case and I don’t expect non-specialized reporters to add their own judgment.
BBC could have titled this article better though.
