The temporary blocking of the X account of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, in February was the topic of the Bundestag's digital committee this week. The activist's account was not blocked arbitrarily, Nick Pickles, head of government relations for Elon Musk's US company once known as Twitter, assured concerned MPs. Rather, there were a number of suspicious technical signals that led to the move.
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On February 20th, the note appeared on Navalnaya's profile, which had been set up just the day before: “Account blocked. X blocks accounts that violate our rules.” The new user had previously blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for her husband's death in a Russian prison camp. She announced that she wanted to continue Navalny's work. Shortly before her blockade, Navalnaya wrote on the network: “I don't care at all what the killer's spokesman says about my words.” Kremlin PR chief Dmitry Peskov dismissed her statements as “filthy.” Shortly after the blocking, the anti-corruption fund founded by Navalny posted an appeal to owner Musk on X: “Please explain exactly which rules were broken by @yulia_navalnaya.” About three quarters of an hour later the account was activated again.
If systems come to the conclusion that a profile violates the regulations, X takes action, Pickles now explained to parliamentarians. Given the mass of attacks, defensive lines are needed, some of which are automated. One of the company's biggest concerns is that the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence technologies are making it easier to create large numbers of fake accounts. X will therefore continue to have to use algorithmic decision-making systems to combat this.
The X lobbyists have to pass on many questions
Pickles did not want to comment on the specific triggers that lead to a ban. As general examples, he only mentioned that the IP address or the device used would be checked. It had previously been said that the platform's defense mechanism against manipulation and spam had flagged a rule violation for Navalnaya. Pickles explained that they were aware of the importance of the account when checking it manually. X subsequently improved the processes to check the authenticity of an account. There should now be a second check for celebrity accounts. What matters is how big the account is and how many followers it has. When asked by the AfD faction whether Musk had intervened in the unlocking process, the lobby boss replied in the negative.
MPs repeatedly questioned the company's potential further precautionary measures, the rise of bots and inauthentic accounts and a lack of human content moderators on the platform. To this, Pickles simply replied that they were based on the number of users and the available data on risks.
Pickles and other company representatives were unable to provide specific figures on the blocking and re-enabling of accounts – including those of users who were critical of Musk – or the error rate in human and automatic content moderation. However, they wanted to provide relevant information later. They also initially did not provide any information about the transparency database provided for in the Digital Services Act (DSA) for user complaints about illegal content and the relevant figures, which are low compared to other social networks. They repeatedly emphasized that X would comply with the DSA and not give up the European market.
No know-how about politically exposed accounts
The committee chairwoman Tabea Rößner from the Greens emphasized that there was a need for low-threshold options for users to get in touch with the company. Any user can lodge a complaint against any decision by email or in the help center, Pickles replied. When asked about the issue of freedom of expression, he emphasized that freedom of expression and the security of platforms must be able to coexist. It is important that the DSA does not lead to censorship.
When asked about the aspects of exerting influence, agenda setting and influencing elections, the X lobbyist replied that they were very aware of these risks. Since the Israel-Hamas war, over 780,000 pieces of content have been removed for violating the company's own guidelines. With a view to the upcoming European elections, all sides would have to work together at various levels to remedy the situation. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) is now planning to block government accounts for agitators with a law against digital violence.
Thomas Jarzombek (CDU) took away from the meeting: X representatives are not aware of the threshold of users that leads to a second review. The platform operator has “no idea what politically exposed accounts are, and he wouldn’t treat them any differently than anyone else.” This also applies to accounts with a Jewish background. All information on previously certified accounts would be deleted and not used again before suspension. Maximilian Funke-Kaiser (FDP) described the hearing as a “failure”. Since the interviewees were not there, expectations were already low. The liberal asserted: “That was the last time it would happen like that.”
(NO)