EU Regulators Threaten To Prosecute Elon Musk

Uploaded on 2024-08-16 in TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Social Media, NEWS-Cybersecurity News, FREE TO VIEW

The European Union (EU) issued a bold warning letter to X owner Elon Musk, reminding him of the Unions’s rules against promoting harmful content. This was just before his recent streamed interview with former US president Donald Trump.

On the following day, Trump and Musk had a live-streamed conversation on X that was interrupted by technical issues that caused a 40-minute-plus delay and was widely described as rambling.

It featured some of the Republican presidential candidate’s key political views, including his policy on immigration and his thoughts on his survival of a recent assassination attempt.

The European Union's commissioner responsible for digital regulation, Thierry Breton had initially announced his intention to prosecute Elon Musk, only to be promptly accused of meddling in US domestic politics, followed by a rapid public retreat the followig day.

There is, however, a significant risk for the X social media platform (previously named Twitter before Musk bought it for $43billion in 2022). The EU Commission has the power to issue penalties of up to 6% of global annual turnover for non-compliance with the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA regulates online intermediaries and platforms such as marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores, and online travel and accommodation platforms. Its main goal is to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation, to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses.

Musk quickly replied to Commissioner Breton's letter, saying “To be honest, I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme,” he wrote to his almost 194 million X followers, while posting a curse-laden photo from the 2008 Hollywood blockbuster. “But I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!”

In addition to challenging the EU Commissioner, Musk has also recently had a high profile argument with the newly elected British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who had accused him of spreading fake news inciting real-world violence during anti-immigration riots. Amongst other comments, Musk said “civil war is inevitable” in response to a video of a riot in Liverpool, which was met with threats that X could be banned and Musk prosecuted for his part in the violence.

This disagreement threatens to undermine the EU's reputation as the leading digital regulator, which is now at stake.

The EU considers itself the leading regulatory entity amongst global democracies, uniquely capable of exerting control over the US technology industry. Indeed, Commissioner Breton, a former CEO of the French technology company Atos, has made himself one of the public faces of the EU's regulatory initiatives concerning social media rules, efforts to regulate Artificial Intelligence and boost digital competition.

Before the current controversy, Elon Musk accused the EU in July of offering him a secret deal to censor users of his social media X platform, thereby avoiding huge fines.

Right now, many X users claim to have seen an increase in misinformation and hateful content, as well as pornography and spam posts and accounts, despite Musk claiming he would “defeat the bots” after taking over the company.

It remains to be seen whether the EU will follow through and exercise its regulatory powers against X and Elon Musk in the same way that it has previously done with, Google, Meta and Apple.

Image: BoliviaIntelegente

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