Elon Musk is having a rough week. His daughter has denounced him as a fake Christian, an absent father, and a serial adulterer. He’s been in court to fight a custody battle. His ex-partner Grimes said he “‘cannot distinguish the truth.” And that’s just his personal life.
Musk’s businesses are also under fire. Tesla stock has plummeted. X has repelled so many advertisers that Musk has sued them over an alleged “illegal boycott.” Politicians have accused the platform of fuelling race riots.
Musk has also been slammed for claiming “civil war is inevitable” in Britain. But his next battle could come from across the Irish Sea.
The Emerald Isle has targeted two controversies at X. One is the torrent of bigotry, lies, and fallacies that’s flooding the platform.
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Irish lawmakers have proposed a solution: hold social media executives personally accountable.
Irish troubles for X
Ireland wants to become a global leader in tackling harmful online content.
Its new prime minister, Simon Harris, said Ireland was “ahead of many, many other European countries” in dealing with the problem.
By the end of this year, Harris plans to enforce binding codes enforced with fines. He also pledged this week to make directors “personally responsible.”
But that’s just the start of Musk’s troubles in Ireland. The country’s lawmakers have also targeted X’s Grok chatbot.
As TNW previously reported, X has been training Grok on users’ data without notifying them. Privacy groups believe this breaks EU laws.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has taken the matter to court.
The commission claims that X has violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC is also concerned about the data entering the next X bot. Musk plans to release Grok 2 this month.
X has reportedly refused the commission’s requests to postpone the launch. The proceedings will return to the court within days.
That could create another tumultuous week for Elon. But at least next week he has something to look forward to on Monday: Donald Trump has promised to give him an interview.
Update (09.00AM CEST, September 18, 2019): Shortly after this article was published, the DPC said X had agreed to pause Grok’s training on Europeans’ data — for now.
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