Freedom of Speech and Hate Speech
Musk agrees with EU on content rules for Twitter
Billionaire Elon Musk wants to take over Twitter. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP/dpa/archive image
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Elon Musk wants to take over Twitter – and keeps arguing against the rules for deleting content on the platform itself. Particularly strict guidelines apply in the EU – no problem for Musk?
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who wants to take over Twitter, sees no contradiction in his plans for more freedom of speech on the platform with the EU’s strict content rules. “We pretty much agree,” Musk said in a joint video with EU Commissioner Thierry Breton.
In Europe, stricter supervision of online platforms has just been passed with the Digital Services Act (DSA). Breton said in the video published on Tuesday night that he explained the DSA to Musk. “I think it corresponds exactly to my thinking,” said the tech entrepreneur afterwards. He agrees with everything Breton said.
Among other things, the DSA aims to ensure that illegal content such as hate speech is removed from the Internet more quickly after appropriate notification, harmful disinformation and war propaganda is shared less and fewer counterfeit products are sold on online marketplaces. To do this, platforms like Instagram have to make their recommendation algorithms more transparent for the first time.
More transparency in algorithms is also part of Musk’s plans for Twitter. At the same time, however, he criticizes Twitter for the fact that the service is currently banning too much fundamentally legal content from the platform. This criticism is likely to be aimed primarily at the United States, where conservatives and supporters of ex-President Donald Trump in particular are upset that Twitter is taking action against misinformation about the corona virus – as well as against the unproven claims that Joe Biden was campaigning for the White House cheating won. At the same time, Musk had always said that Twitter had to comply with local laws – and in Europe there will be a clear legal situation when the DSA comes into force.
It will be some time before it becomes clear whether Musk will get Twitter. The boss of the electric car manufacturer Tesla agreed with the Twitter board of directors on a deal worth around 44 billion dollars, but is still dependent on enough shareholders wanting to cede their shares to him. Twitter and Musk aim to complete the acquisition by the end of the year.