The EU in November told newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk that he must enforce the EU's Digital Services Act with regards to content moderation on the platform. The EU said that Musk could not simply reinstate banned users and must combat what they termed "disinformation." Now, the EU is claiming that they may enact "sanctions" over the temporary suspension of journalists who were doxxing other uses on the platform, including Musk.
EU commissioner Thierry Breton told Musk during a video meeting that Musk would be responsible for adhering to a checklist of rules, including no longer taking what they called an "arbitrary" approach to reinstating banned users. Breton also told Musk that he must "aggressively" fight so-called disinformation on Twitter.
Vice-President for Values and Transparency in the EU Věra Jourová said "News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct. @elonmusk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon."
allowfullscreen>Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out that this is quite an about face for the EU, which apparently can't decide if they want more censorship, or less, or simply the freedom to censor those opinions they don't agree with while allowing the ones they do.
On Thursday, Musk joined a Twitter Spaces and told journalists that they will get "no special treatment" when it comes to policies on doxxing, or sharing real-time location information of others.
"As I'm sure everyone who's doxxed would agree," Musk told listeners to the Spaces, "drawing real time information about somebody’s location is inappropriate, and I think everyone on this call would not like that to be done to them."
"And there is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists, simple journalists, and regular people. Everyone’s gonna be treated the same. You’re not special because you’re a journalist. You’re just, on Twitter you’re just a citizen, so no special treatment," he said.
"You dox, you get suspended, end of story. And ban evasion, or trying to be clever about it, like 'I posted a link to the real time information,' that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning. That’s no different from actually sharing real time information," he continued.
Musk's purchase of Twitter came after the banning and suppression of many high profile accounts for having had the audacity to speak truth against the gender narrative that demands that transgender people be referred to according to their preferences as opposed to according to reality.
"The European Union's Digital Services Act seeks to force tech companies to more aggressively police their platforms for illegal content and be more transparent about how their content moderation systems work," the Washington Post reports. "Companies will need to start reporting some information early next year, but the legislation doesn't fully kick in until 2024."
Musk has met with Breton about what is needed to ensure that Twitter is in compliance with that law.
