Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission, said on Monday that regulators have increased scrutiny of Twitter since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social network.
Bobby Allyn / NPR
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Bobby Allyn / NPR
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission, said on Monday that regulators have increased scrutiny of Twitter since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social network.
Bobby Allyn / NPR
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – The head of the European Union competition has a message for Twitter’s new boss, Elon Musk: We’re watching you.
Since the Tesla CEO took ownership of the social network last week, along with other changes that promised to relax rules around what people can post on Twitter, authorities in Europe has been monitoring for any indication that Twitter may be in violation of European speech laws.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission who oversees digital policy for the 27-nation bloc, said in her first interview since Musk took over Twitter: “There’s a rule book. European rules. “Otherwise, we have penalties. We have fines. We have all the reviews and all the decisions will come to haunt you.”
A new European law called Digital Services Act forcing tech companies to quickly remove posts deemed illegal in the countries where the content appears. It also requires tech companies to provide users with information about how their algorithms work.
On top of that, the law requires major online platforms like Twitter to be audited by outside experts to assess how they handle malicious material, such as the spread of misinformation.
“They will have to systematically evaluate their services, whether they can be hacked for undermining democracy or other harmful activities, or whether the service itself is harmful to people regardless of the terms of service.” their service or not?” Vestager said.
If tech companies fail to comply with the law, European officials can fine up to 6% of annual worldwide revenue. In 2021, Twitter’s revenue is approximately $5 billion, the maximum possible penalty under the law at the ballpark is $30 million.
When asked if European regulators are now scrutinizing Twitter, Vestager replied: “Of course we do. We have a responsibility to enforce this law. This is what we promised. Voters, consumers and users have made promises.”
The European Union’s industry chief quickly brought Musk into the spotlight shortly after the billionaire took control of Twitter last week.
When Musk tweeted that “the bird is free,” around the time he bought Twitter, referring to the company’s blue bird logo, Thierry Breton replied, “In Europe, the bird will fly.” according to EU rules.”
In Europe, the bird will fly according to our 🇪🇺 rule.#DSA https://t.co/95W3qzYsal
– Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 28, 2022
Reuters at the beginning of the day reported that Musk has personally told EU officials that he intends to follow all of the bloc’s laws governing illegal and harmful speech.
Musk’s exact plans for Twitter are still under review. While the billionaire describes himself as a “liberalist” and has criticized what he sees as Twitter’s outrageous content rules, the question is fraught with what’s okay and what’s not. allowed on the site remains unanswered.
He said that before any drastic changes, he would form a “content moderation council” made up of people with “broadly diverse views” to push new boundaries of speech. of Twitter, or lack of protection. This dashboard, Musk has tweetedwill consider whether users who have been removed from Twitter should be reinstated.
Meanwhile, the researchers also noticed an increase in hate speech on Twitter since Musk took power.
According to the Network Infection Research Institute, the use of the word n 500% increase after Musk bought it. The researchers also note that posts on extremist forums like 4chan are encouraging people to “test the limits” of Twitter for hate speech by posting derogatory comments and seeing what happens. will happen.
Musk himself promoted a baseless conspiracy from his own Twitter account to his more than 112 million followers with a post about violent attack about the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In a now-deleted tweet, Musk on Sunday wrote: “There is a very small possibility that there could be more to this story than eye sight,” linking to an article from the Santa Monica website. Observer, a fringe site that regularly goes viral. – Conspiracy theories.
While Europe’s new speech rules target systemic risks to people and not problems with individual posts, Vestager on Monday said Musk should figure out how Twitter can reduce the amount of harmful content the platform is exposing people to. If he didn’t, she said, she believes people would leave Twitter in search of a better alternative.
“I take it for granted that if Twitter isn’t a good place, it’s going to be somewhere else,” Vestager said.
