The European Union directly intervened in US domestic politics on Monday, demanding that X owner Elon Musk comply with Brussels’ speech restrictions during a planned, uncensored interview with President Donald Trump.
The European Commission’s censorship chief, Thierry Breton, wrote to tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, warning him that he would use all powers at his disposal under the commission to stop him from granting an uncensored interview with former President Donald Trump. Digital Services Act If a US presidential candidate violates EU speech restrictions, the Division of Safety Aggregation (DSA) will be applied against X.
“I am writing to you in relation to recent events in the UK and your planned broadcast on your platform X of a live interview between yourself and a US presidential candidate, which will also be available to EU users,” the French European official began his letter to Musk.
Breton said that as Trump’s interview will be broadcast live across the EU on X, Brussels will “monitor” the “dissemination of content that may incite violence, hatred or racism in the context of major political or social events around the world, including debates or interviews related to the elections.”
As a result, EU censorship chiefs called on X to implement “mitigating measures” against the “amplification of harmful content” that “may have a detrimental impact on civil debate and public safety” in Europe.
To be honest, I wanted to respond with this “Tropic Thunder” meme, but I would never be so rude and irresponsible! https://t.co/jL0GDW5QUx pic.twitter.com/XhUxCSGFNP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2024
Breton argued that social media fuelled recent mass anti-immigration riots and protests in the UK following a mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport last month, and called for restrictions to be placed on X during interviews with President Trump and other major world events.
“This is important against the backdrop of recent examples of public unrest caused by the amplification of content promoting hatred, disorder, incitement to violence or the spread of certain disinformation,” he wrote, adding: “I therefore urge you to immediately ensure the effectiveness of your systems and report back to my team on the measures you have taken.”
The European official said the Commission would monitor DSA’s breach of speech rules “with extreme vigilantism,” vowing to “use the full range of our tools, including interim measures if necessary to protect EU citizens from serious harm.”
According to the EU, the “provisional measures” are include It could “order the termination or rectification of the alleged infringing conduct,” and the EU could demand that Musk remove or censor his interview with the former US president.
Any major platform found to be in violation of the DSA could be fined up to 6% of the company’s “total global annual turnover for the previous financial year” and could be banned from operating in the European Union. Musk’s X is already under investigation for allegedly violating the EU’s “disinformation” policy.
Musk responded to French’s letter on Monday. Reply: “Bonjour!” said another. post“Thierry always reminds me of a French provocateur from Monty Python.”
Social media sites will be banned if they don’t remove ‘calls to revolt’ and violent footage, says EU censorship ministerhttps://t.co/tj9PM9wVlt
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 11, 2023
