Would Elon Pull ExTwitter Out Of The EU To Avoid The DSA Overreach?
This course of events was all too predictable. In May of 2022, while Elon was still in the trying to buy Twitter" stage, we pointed out the absolute ridiculousness of him meeting with the EU's Thierry Breton and saying that he fully endorsed the EU's DSA approach. As we noted at the time, the whole framework of the DSA was set up to enable the EU to force websites like Twitter to suppress speech, and Elon's endorsement of it (while claiming to be a free speech absolutist") suggested that it would be ridiculously easy for politicians around the globe to play Musk for a fool on speech suppression (something that has since been proven true on multiple occasions).
In fact, if you go back and watch the original video of Breton and Musk, you can almost see Breton snickering at knowing how much he had played Musk.
Of course, last week, Breton started shaking his censor stick at a bunch of social media companies sending many of them letters effectively demanding they remove disinformation or face massive fines under the DSA. As we noted, this was a dangerous and stupid thing for Breton to do, even if we agree that Elon's been terrible for exTwitter and is wholly unprepared for dealing with the kind of disinfo flowing during a modern crisis. That's no excuse for the government to demand censorship, however.
A day after sending his threat letter to Musk (not, by the way, Linda Yaccarino), Breton took things up a notch, initiating an official investigation into exTwitter under the DSA.
Today the European Commission services formally sent X a request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This request follows indications received by the Commission services of the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech. The request addresses compliance with other provisions of the DSA as well.
Following its designation as Very Large Online Platform, X is required to comply with the full set of provisions introduced by the DSA since late August 2023, including the assessment and mitigation of risks related to the dissemination of illegal content, disinformation, gender-based violence, and any negative effects on the exercise of fundamental rights, rights of the child, public security and mental well-being.
In this particular case, the Commission services are investigating X's compliance with the DSA, including with regard to its policies and actions regarding notices on illegal content, complaint handling, risk assessment and measures to mitigate the risks identified. The Commission services are empowered to request further information to X in order to verify the correct implementation of the law.
Now, according to Insider, Musk is considering just closing off the EU from exTwitter rather than deal with this.
I actually think this is the right move. Breton is throwing around his censorial weight, and it would be great if Musk actually did push back a little bit. At the very least, this could establish some boundaries on what the DSA actually enables an unelected bureaucrat like Breton to do regarding internet speech.
In recent weeks Elon Musk has suggested Twitter could stop being accessible in Europe in order to avoid new regulation enacted by the European Commission.
Musk is increasingly frustrated with having to comply with the Digital Services Act, according to a person familiar with the company. The Tesla billionaire, who acquired Twitter, now called X, a year ago for $44 billion, has discussed simply removing the app's availability in the region, or blocking users in the European Union from accessing it, the person said.
That said, I find it difficult to believe he'd actually do it. As we've highlighted, traffic is down. Ad revenue is way, way down. No one's signing up for Premium," and his new $1/year plan is likely to go down in flames as well.
Is he really going to cut off over 400 million EU residents? It... seems unlikely.