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Europe’s top digital regulator warned Twitter boss Elon Musk on Wednesday that he must do more to fight disinformation to comply with EU law.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton held a video call with Musk and told him there is “a lot of work ahead” to bring the platform into compliance with Brussels rules.
Brittany posted a short, silent video clip of his video conference on Musk’s Twitter platform, but then posted a link to a longer statement on his rival Mastodon network.
“I welcome Elon Musk’s statement of intent to have Twitter 2.0 ready for the DSA,” Breton said, referring to the EU Digital Services Act, Brussels’ overarching internet law.
“But let’s also be clear that there is a lot of work ahead,” he said.
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“Twitter must implement a transparent user policy, vigorously strengthen content moderation and protect free speech, firmly combat disinformation and limit targeted advertising.”
Musk did not directly respond to Brittany’s post, but in a separate tweet replying to another user, he agreed that Twitter had “a lack of trust and security for a very long time” under its previous management.
“Twitter 2.0 will be more effective, transparent and fair,” he promised.
The DSA was passed last year and will take effect next year after tech giants have had time to comply with stricter European orders to remove harmful or deliberately misleading content.
Companies found to be non-compliant face fines of up to 6 percent of their global turnover and even bans from doing business in the European Union, a huge market of more than 440 million people.
Tech companies lobbied EU policymakers heavily before the laws passed, but most companies said they would try to comply with the rules — despite the alarm raised by Musk’s behavior since buying Twitter last month.
Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” has fired many of the Twitter employees responsible for moderating content and maintaining ties with regulators in Brussels.
He also began allowing Twitter users who had been banned from the platform for posting false information, such as former U.S. President Donald Trump, to return.
On Wednesday, news emerged that Twitter had also stopped enforcing a rule preventing users from sharing misleading information about Covid-19 and the effectiveness of vaccines.
The moves are a red flag for Brussels, which is eager to see whether a platform as large and influential as Twitter will comply with the DSA.
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“I’m delighted to hear he read it carefully and sees it as a sensible approach to implement globally,” Breton said in his online statement.
But he then published five Mastodon posts with a list of platforms that met the DSA rules.
These include enhanced content moderation, measures to tackle disinformation, transparency rules against manipulation of social media content and restrictions on targeted advertising.
Finally, it warned the Silicon Valley giant to brace for a European audit of its procedures.
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