The European Union appears to be making its move against X, threatening to block the platform and hit it with massive fines over alleged “disinformation,” but the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, is requesting that the EU provide concrete examples to back up its claims.
Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, has long threatened to take action against X with a wave of censorship, issued a public warning to Musk, claiming the platform failed to take action against illegal content related to Saturday’s Hamas terror attack on Israel. Breton threatened that Musk has 24 hours to respond to the claims being made.
“Public media and civil society organisations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games. This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information,” Breton wrote.
Musk, however, is asking for specific examples to back the claim and responded directly to Breton’s tweet.
Breton responded to Musk’s comment, claiming Musk is aware of the reports from “users” and authorities,” to which Musk responded that Breton should publish any reports openly on the platform. Breton has not responded and so far has kept the world community in the dark about the EU’s claims of disinformation.
We take our actions in the open.
No back room deals.
Please post your concerns explicitly on this platform.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2023Musk also responded to another user, saying he had not seen anything substantiating the EU’s claims, writing: “Maybe it’s in the mail or something.”
Although much of the European public is likely unaware that the EU’s Digital Service Regulation (DSA) even exists, the law came into effect of August of this year, which gives the EU broad powers to censor entire social media platforms, hit them with huge fines representing up to 6 percent of global revenue, or outright ban the service.
Pulitizer-prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald detailed in an X thread the NGOs and fact-checkers behind the efforts to implement widespread censorship across the platform, which Musk has promoted as a space for free speech, even if critics say censorship is still commonplace.
The EU may choose to proceed with fines first, as an outright ban could serve as a public relations debacle. Nevertheless, fines may be just as effective, if not more so, in bringing the platform down.
