The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, says it is struggling with a flood of posts sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct about the Israel-Hamas war.

But it has received a broadside of criticism, including from a top European Union official, questioning the adequacy of the response and giving its billionaire owner Elon Musk a 24-hour ultimatum to comply with the bloc’s Digital Services Act.

Outside watchdog groups said misinformation about the war abounds on the platform, whose workforce – including its content moderation team – was gutted by Musk after he bought it last year.

Fake and manipulated imagery circulating on X include “repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games,” said a Tuesday letter to Musk from European Commissioner Thierry Breton.

“This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information”.

Breton, the EU’s digital rights chief, also warned Musk in the letter, which was posted on X, that authorities have been flagging “potentially illegal content” that could violate EU laws and “you must be timely, diligent and objective” in removing it when warranted.

San Francisco-based X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Breton’s letter.

A post late on Monday from X’s safety team claimed it is treating the crisis with utmost effort.

“In the past couple of days, we’ve seen an increase in daily active users on @X in the conflict area, plus there have been more than 50 million posts globally focusing on the weekend’s terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response,” it read.

That includes continuing a policy frequently championed by Musk of letting users help rate what might be misinformation, which causes those posts to include a note of context but not disappear from the platform.