Elon Musk has had a rough week. His daughter has called him a fake Christian, an absent father and a notorious adulterer. He was in court to fight for custody. His ex-partner Grimes said he “cannot see the truth”. And that's just his private life.
Musk's companies are also under fire. Tesla shares have plummeted. X has scared off so many advertisers that Musk has sued them for an alleged “illegal boycott.” Politicians accuse the platform of inciting racial unrest.
Musk has also been criticised for claiming that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain, but his next battle could come from across the Irish Sea.
The Emerald Isle has targeted two controversies on X. One of them is the flood of bigotry, lies and errors that flood the platform.
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Irish lawmakers have proposed a solution: those responsible for social media must be held personally accountable.
Irish problems for X
Ireland aims to be a global leader in combating harmful online content.
New Prime Minister Simon Harris said Ireland was “ahead of many, many other European countries” in tackling the problem.
Harris plans to enforce binding codes of conduct, punishable by fines, by the end of this year. This week he also promised to hold directors “personally accountable.”
But that's just the beginning of Musk's problems in Ireland. Irish lawmakers have also targeted X's chatbot Grok.
As TNW previously reported, X trained Grok using users' data without informing them, something privacy groups say violates EU laws.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has brought the case to court.
The Commission alleges that X violated the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC is also concerned about the data going into the next X-Bot. Musk plans to release Grok 2 this month.
X has reportedly refused the Commission's request to delay the launch or stop data processing. The case will be brought back to court in the next few days.
This could mean another turbulent week for Elon. But at least he can look forward to Monday of next week: Donald Trump has promised to give him an interview.
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