Musk to Finally Face EU’s Wrath?
Musk has been playing with fire for a while now. Have the Eurocrats finally had enough?
Just recently Musk tweeted that if there’s any scandal involving him, it should be called Elongate.
And it seems like it’s about to erupt. The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk over alleged disinformation about Hamas’s attacks on Israel, including fake news and repurposed old images' on X (Twitter).
“Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU,” wrote the European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton.
He added that public media and civil society organizations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU. They include “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, adding that, “Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.”
Source: X (Twitter)
Musk’s response to Breton’s official letter, however, suggests that he’s nowhere close to admitting to any wrongdoing. On the contrary, he writes that “our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports'', ending the letter with “merci beaucoup.”
In spite of the cheeky merci beaucoup, it is unlikely that the EU will let Musk get away with this. If Musk failed to comply, he can be fined up to 6% of his revenues from X or face a total blackout in the EU, which is forcing other platforms, including Facebook, Google and even TikTok, to remove disinformation.
The tensions between Musk and the EU are not new. The Union already held extensive talks with the platform, drawing attention to the omnipresent hatred on the platform.
In July, Breton traveled to San Francisco to discuss Twitter’s readiness to undergo a “stress test” to prepare for the EU Digital Services Act. Notably, Musk wasn’t physically present at that meeting, leaving Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino to deal with the situation.
Despite saying back then that “we’re focused on our continued partnership,” Yaccarino did not address Breton’s letter. One of her last tweets focuses on the purported “real progress in our critical work” in combating misleading content on X.
Source: X (Twitter)
Breton confirmed that they already received a letter from X, adding that “The DSA enforcement team will analyze the reply and decide on next steps.”
Previously, GN Crypto shed light on Musk’s legal right hand Alex Shapiro.
