"EU tells Meta to crack down on Israel-Hamas disinfo"

The EU has warned Mark Zuckerberg over the spread of "disinformation" on Meta's social media platforms after Hamas' attack on Israel.

It told Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, it "has 24 hours" to respond and comply with European law.

Social media firms have seen a surge in misinformation about the conflict, including doctored images and mislabelled videos.

On Tuesday the EU warned X, formerly known as Twitter, about such content.

The bloc's industry chief, Thierry Breton, told Meta it must prove it has taken "timely, diligent and objective action".

In a letter, he said the firm had 24 hours to tell him about the "proportionate and effective" measures it had taken to counter the spread of disinformation on its platforms.

A Meta spokesperson told the BBC: "After the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, we quickly established a special operations centre 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."

The European Commission meanwhile reminded all social media companies that they are legally required to prevent the spread of harmful content related to Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is a proscribed terrorist group in the EU.

"Content circulating online that can be associated to Hamas qualifies as terrorist content, is illegal, and needs to be removed under both the Digital Services Act and Terrorist Content Online Regulation," a Commission spokesperson said.

Musk warning
On Tuesday, Mr Breton wrote in a letter to Mr Musk that "violent and terrorist content" had not been taken down from X, despite warnings.

Mr Musk said his company had taken action, including by removing newly-created Hamas-affiliated accounts.