Activists take action against Twitter/X
Twitter/X wants to use the tweets of 60 million European users to train AI algorithms. The authors of the content are not asked. The organization “None Of Your Business” (NOYB) is therefore now filing complaints in several EU countries.
NOYB active again
NOYB and its founder Max Schrems have already made a name for themselves in recent years by enforcing EU law against the Meta corporation. The latter also wanted to use its users’ data to train its AI technologies. However, following a complaint from NOYB, the US company suspended this plan for Europe a few weeks ago. Twitter/X, which belongs to the entrepreneur Elon Musk, is not very impressed by this and is pushing ahead with exactly the same plans. The Irish data protection authority DPC, which is actually more business-friendly, has already taken action against this. However, the NOYB activists feel that the DPC’s demands are not sufficient.
“The court documents are not public, but it is clear from the oral hearing that the DPC did not itself question the legality of this processing. It seems that the DPC has dealt with so-called ‘remedial measures’ and a lack of cooperation from Twitter. The DPC seems to be working on the fringes but shying away from the core issue,” commented Schrems.
DPC is too slow
That is why the organisation has filed GDPR complaints with data protection authorities in nine EU countries to ensure that the key legal issues are fully addressed by the AI training, it said. The more other EU data protection authorities join the proceedings, the more pressure the Irish data protection authority will face to pursue its case. “We have seen countless cases of inefficient and incomplete enforcement by the DPC in recent years.
We want to ensure that Twitter fully complies with EU law, which in this case at least requires asking users for their consent,” explained Schrems. The simplest solution for the social media platform would be to simply ask its users – this should still provide enough data for the AI training, according to the activists.
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