Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe’s new social media rules.
Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc’s content rules.
If Musk fails to comply, the EU’s rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.
Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X’s own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.
Freedom of speech is mostly an American concept. In most European states we „only“ have freedom of expression and opinion (a human right). Deliberately spreading propaganda, agitation and fake news is not covered by freedom of expression and opinion. On the contrary, it can be a criminal offense.
This is not the first time Musk thinks US laws apply to the whole world or that he is above the law of the countries his businesses operate in. A part of me hopes that he gets fined and then ignores the fine. He might just be stupid enough.
See? I called him stupid. That is an expression of my opinion. Using images of violence from 2010 and claiming that they are from 2023 is not an opinion.
I think he should just take X out of the EU and watch the uproar when EU citizens can’t get their fix.
Would really show who wears the pants in the relationship.
I’m specifically referring to real videos accurately described in my previous comment.
EU citizens would grumble a bit, but then just switch over to other services like Treads and Mastodon. Many of our governments already did.
We aren’t loyal to a specific company, we use what is the most convenient and doesn’t spit right in our faces.
I think the EU would change its rules to appease its citizens who are addicted to X.
Same reason why the US would never ban tiktok. There would be an uproar of average people who don’t pay attention to these things wondering where their fix went.
It would not. The EU has funded Matrix/Element, Mastodon, even Lemmy has been developed using EU funding.
Facebook, 𝕏, Google, and similar US mega corps, can play by the rules or GTFO, the EU has alternatives.
Are you sure?
What makes you think that EU citizens would criticize X instead of the EU if X left because it didn’t follow EU regulations?
Citizens can criticize, the EU hasn’t been funding alternatives just to go back on its regulations.