EU probes AliExpress over possibly illegal, harmful online products

Alibaba's AliExpress risks a hefty fine after the European Commission on Thursday opened an investigation into dissemination of potentially illegal and pornographic materials, the third such probe after X social media platform and TikTok. The move comes under powers granted to the EU executive from the Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful products on their platforms.

Alibaba's AliExpress risks a hefty fine after the European Commission on Thursday opened an investigation into dissemination of potentially illegal and pornographic materials, the third such probe after X social media platform and TikTok.

The move comes under powers granted to the EU executive from the Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful products on their platforms. "We are concerned that the systemic risks which have to do with the dissemination of illegal products such as fake medicines or non-compliant food or dietary supplements that are not effective on AliExpress," Commission officials told reporters.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Commission on Thursday also sent requests for information to Microsoft's Bing, Google Search , Meta Platforms' Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, ByteDance's TikTok and Elon Musk's X social media platform on their use of generative artificial intelligence.

Commission officials said they will examine whether the companies conduct risk assessments and have risk mitigation measures to tackle potentially harmful generative AI content. "We are of course concerned with the harmful category, whether it is deep fake news or election relevant, deep fakes that seek to manipulate the public environment," the officials said.

The Commission also sent a request for information to Microsoft's Linkedin on the potential use of personal data for targeted advertising following a complaint from civil society organisations. The probes into X and TikTok are still under way.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)