Hours after Elon Musk completed the $44bn acquisition of Twitter, a top European Union official has told the billionaire to run his social media platform in compliance with Brussel’s rules.
“The EU official overseeing internet regulation cautioned the new Twitter boss that the social media giant must play by the bloc’s rules in Europe,” the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Friday.
“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, tweeted responding to a post by Musk on Friday that declared that the “bird is freed,” a reference to his takeover of the social media giant.
The French TV channel Euronews reported:
The European Commission has reminded Elon Musk that he must follow EU rules following the confirmation that he has taken control of Twitter.”In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, said on the social media platform on Friday morning.A few hours earlier, Musk tweeted to say “the bird has been freed,” a reference to Twitter’s logo. (…)The EU commissioner posted a link to a video published in May showing him with the Tesla CEO in his car factory in Austin, Texas. Musk said EU digital regulation was “exactly aligned” with his own thinking and he agreed “with everything” Breton had said on the measure which deals with platforms’ obligations to moderate content.
EU commissar Breton’s tweet was accompanied by the hashtag DSA, a reference to the bloc’s Digital Services Act, a recently passed law that could penalize Twitter and other digital platforms with billions of dollar in fines for failing to comply with Brussels’ regulations.
“The DSA, which was passed by the European Parliament in July, will demand accountability and transparency from Twitter about decisions the company takes and paves the way for Europe to issue fines of billion of dollars if the company fails to comply,” the tech news website CNET reported Friday.
Breton also tweeted a clip of Musk agreeing with EU’s planned DSA regulations when they both met five months ago in Austin, Texas.
The European mainstream media and EU elites are worried that Musk’s takeover could end the rigorous censoring of conservative and right-wing voices on Twitter, and even restore President Trump’s account, a nightmare scenario for many European Liberals.
“Many Twitter users have expressed concern over Musk’s pledge to protect ‘freedom of speech’ on the platform including mulling the option of reinstating former President Donald Trump who was kicked off Twitter for his connections with the January 6 riots at the Capitol in Washington,” Germany’s Deutsche Welle complained.
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