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Social media giants Meta and X approved ads targeting users in Germany with violent anti-Muslim and anti-Jew hate speech in the run-up to the country\u2019s federal elections, according to new research from Eko<\/a>, a corporate responsibility nonprofit campaign group.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s researchers tested whether the two platforms\u2019 ad review systems would approve or reject submissions for ads containing hateful and violent messaging targeting minorities ahead of an election where immigration has taken center stage in mainstream political discourse \u2014 including ads containing anti-Muslim slurs; calls for immigrants to be imprisoned in concentration camps or to be gassed; and AI-generated imagery of mosques and synagogues being burnt.<\/p>\n Most of the test ads were approved within hours of being submitted for review in mid-February. Germany\u2019s federal elections are set to take place on Sunday, February 23.<\/p>\n Eko said X approved all 10 of the hate speech ads its researchers submitted just days before the federal election is due to take place, while Meta approved half (five ads) for running on Facebook (and potentially also Instagram) \u2014 though it rejected the other five.<\/p>\n The reason Meta provided for the five rejections indicated the platform believed there could be risks of political or social sensitivity which might influence voting. <\/p>\n However, the five ads that Meta approved included violent hate speech likening Muslim refugees to a \u201cvirus,\u201d \u201cvermin,\u201d or \u201crodents,\u201d branding Muslim immigrants as \u201crapists,\u201d and calling for them to be sterilized, burnt, or gassed. Meta also approved an ad calling for synagogues to be torched to \u201cstop the globalist Jewish rat agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n As a sidenote, Eko says none of the AI-generated imagery it used to illustrate the hate speech ads was labeled as artificially generated \u2014 yet half of the 10 ads were still approved by Meta, regardless of the company having a policy that requires disclosure of the use of AI imagery<\/a> for ads about social issues, elections or politics.<\/p>\n X, meanwhile, approved all five of these hateful ads \u2014 and a further five that contained similarly violent hate speech targeting Muslims and Jews. <\/p>\n These additional approved ads included messaging attacking \u201crodent\u201d immigrants that the ad copy claimed are \u201cflooding\u201d the country \u201cto steal our democracy,\u201d and an antisemitic slur which suggested that Jews are lying about climate change in order to destroy European industry and accrue economic power.<\/p>\n The latter ad was combined with AI-generated imagery depicting a group of shadowy men sitting around a table surrounded by stacks of gold bars, with a Star of David on the wall above them \u2014 with the visuals also leaning heavily into antisemitic tropes. <\/p>\n Another ad X approved contained a direct attack on the SPD, the center-left party that currently leads Germany\u2019s coalition government, with a bogus claim that the party wants to take in 60 million Muslim refugees from the Middle East, before going on to try to whip up a violent response. X also duly scheduled an ad suggesting \u201cleftists\u201d want \u201copen borders\u201d, and calling for the extermination of Muslims \u201crapists.\u201d<\/p>\n Elon Musk, the owner of X, has used the social media platform where he has close to 220 million followers to personally intervene in the German election. In a tweet in December<\/a>, he called for German voters to back the Far Right AfD party to \u201csave Germany.\u201d He has also hosted a livestream with the AfD\u2019s leader, Alice Weidel, on X.<\/p>\n Eko\u2019s researchers disabled all test ads before any that had been approved were scheduled to run to ensure no users of the platform were exposed to the violent hate speech.<\/p>\n It says the tests highlight glaring flaws with the ad platforms\u2019 approach to content moderation. Indeed, in the case of X, it\u2019s not clear whether the platform is doing any moderation of ads, given all 10 violent hate speech ads were quickly approved for display.<\/p>\n The findings also suggest that the ad platforms could be earning revenue as a result of distributing violent hate speech. <\/p>\n Eko\u2019s tests suggests that neither platform is properly enforcing bans on hate speech they both claim to apply to ad content in their own policies. Furthermore, in the case of Meta, Eko reached the same conclusion after conducting a similar test <\/a>in 2023 ahead of new EU online governance rules coming in \u2014 suggesting the regime has no effect on how it operates. <\/p>\n \u201cOur findings suggest that Meta\u2019s AI-driven ad moderation systems remain fundamentally broken, despite the Digital Services Act (DSA) now being in full effect,\u201d an Eko spokesperson told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than strengthening its ad review process or hate speech policies, Meta appears to be backtracking across the board,\u201d they added, pointing to the company\u2019s recent announcement about rolling back moderation and fact-checking policies<\/a> as a sign of \u201cactive regression\u201d that they suggested puts it on a direct collision course with DSA rules on systemic risks. <\/p>\n Eko has submitted its latest findings to the European Commission, which oversees enforcement of key aspects of the DSA on the pair of social media giants. It also said it shared the results with both companies, but neither responded.<\/p>\n The EU has open DSA investigations into Meta and X<\/a>, which include concerns about election security and illegal content, but the Commission has yet to conclude these proceedings. Though, back in April<\/a> it said it suspects Meta of inadequate moderation of political ads.<\/p>\n A preliminary decision on a portion of its DSA investigation on X, which was announced in July<\/a>, included suspicions that the platform is failing to live up to the regulation\u2019s ad transparency rules. However, the full investigation, which kicked off in December 2023<\/a>, also concerns illegal content risks, and the EU has yet to arrive at any findings on the bulk of the probe well over a year later.<\/p>\n Confirmed breaches of the DSA can attract penalties of up to 6% of global annual turnover, while systemic non-compliance could even lead to regional access to violating platforms being blocked temporarily. <\/p>\n But, for now, the EU is still taking its time to make up its mind on the Meta and X probes so \u2014 pending final decisions \u2014 any DSA sanctions remain up in the air. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, it\u2019s now just a matter of hours before German voters go to the polls \u2014 and a growing body of civil society research suggests that the EU\u2019s flagship online governance regulation has failed to shield the major EU economy\u2019s democratic process from a range of tech-fueled threats.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Global Witness released<\/a> the results of tests of X and TikTok\u2019s algorithmic \u201cFor You\u201d feeds in Germany, which suggest the platforms are biased in favor of promoting AfD content versus content from other political parties. Civil society researchers have also accused X of blocking data access<\/a> to prevent them from studying election security risks in the run-up to the German poll \u2014 access the DSA is supposed to enable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Commission has taken important steps by opening DSA investigations into both Meta and X, now we need to see the Commission take strong action to address the concerns raised as part of these investigations,\u201d Eko\u2019s spokesperson also told us. <\/p>\n \u201cOur findings, alongside mounting evidence from other civil society groups, show that Big Tech will not clean up its platforms voluntarily. Meta and X continue to allow illegal hate speech, incitement to violence, and election disinformation to spread at scale, despite their legal obligations under the DSA,\u201d the spokesperson added. (We have withheld the spokesperson\u2019s name to prevent harassment.)<\/p>\n \u201cRegulators must take strong action \u2014 both in enforcing the DSA but also for example implementing pre-election mitigation measures. This could include turning off profiling-based recommender systems immediately before elections, and implementing other appropriate \u2018break-glass\u2019 measures to prevent algorithmic amplification of borderline content, such as hateful content in the run-up elections.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign group also warns that the EU is now facing pressure from the Trump administration to soften its approach to regulating Big Tech. \u201cIn the current political climate, there\u2019s a real danger that the Commission doesn\u2019t fully enforce these new laws as a concession to the U.S.,\u201d they suggest.<\/p>\nHate speech ads scheduled <\/h2>\n
EU\u2019s Digital Services Act in the frame<\/h2>\n