Elon Musk has been told by Brussels that if he owns Twitter, it must comply with the EU’s new digital regulations or face large fines or perhaps a ban, laying the stage for a global regulatory struggle over the social media platform’s future.
Following Twitter’s $44 billion acquisition offer, Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for the internal market, warned the Financial Times that Musk must respect regulations on filtering unlawful and damaging content online.
Breton said: “We welcome everyone. We are open but on our conditions. At least we know what to tell him: ‘Elon, there are rules. You are welcome but these are our rules. It’s not your rules which will apply here.’”
Given that huge numbers of people depend on the San Francisco-based platform for news, Musk’s take-private offer for Twitter could transform the Tesla CEO, who has used the network to bash regulators and critics, into a social media mogul.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy,” he said on Monday, describing Twitter as “the digital town square where matters vital to humanity’s future are debated.”
Breton, one of Europe’s most powerful digital regulators, made the remarks just days after Brussels approved a new piece of legislation that will require Big Tech to control online content more forcefully.
Musk described himself as a “free speech absolutist” in his pitch for Twitter, outlining ambitions to ease the social media platform’s content control procedures. Republican legislators in the United States are hoping that the agreement will allow Donald Trump to return to Twitter after he was banned for repeatedly breaking the platform’s hate speech and disinformation guidelines.
Breton, on the other hand, said he intended to give Musk’s plans for less rigorous regulation a “reality check.” The EU commissioner, who played a significant role in developing the new Digital Services Act, warned that Twitter’s failure to comply might result in a ban in Europe.
The Digital Services Act requires companies like Twitter to tell regulators how they handle content like disinformation and propaganda. The ground-breaking regulations are part of a larger Brussels campaign to limit the power of huge online platforms like Facebook and Google.
Last month, the EU also published the Digital Markets Act, which aims to limit Big Tech’s clout by prohibiting platforms from promoting their services ahead of competitors.
