Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned by top EU official about fake news on Israel-Hamas war, elections

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has been given 24 hours by Europe to respond to the Israel-Hamas conflict and misinformation related to elections. Thierry Breton, a European regulator, sent a letter to Zuckerberg on Wednesday. In the letter, he asked Zuckerberg to be careful about removing false information.

Breton mentioned that there has been a rise in illegal content and false information on some platforms after the attack on Israel by Hamas. As per the Digital Services Act of the EU, Meta has to monitor and remove such content. Breton wants Zuckerberg to reply within 24 hours.

According to a report by CNBC, a Meta spokesperson explained that the company is already trying to work to monitor and respond to the misinformation being spread about the Israel-Hamas war.

The spokesperson said, “After the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, we quickly established a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation. Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact-checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”

Breton also wrote a letter to Elon Musk, the owner of X (previously known as Twitter), with a serious warning. He mentioned that there are signs of groups spreading false and violent content about the Israel-Hamas conflict on the platform. This letter was sent after many researchers and news organizations noticed an increase in misleading and false content on X, which led to confusion about the events.

Read more: Israel-Hamas War: Top EU official issues 24-hr warning to Elon Musk over misinformation on X

Also read: Israel-Hamas War: From Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to X Chairman Elon Musk, here's how tech leaders reacted to the conflict