Elon Musk has denied a media report about a possible withdrawal of his online platform X from Europe. The EU Commission had previously demanded clarification from the tech billionaire about the wave of misinformation.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has rejected a media report about a possible withdrawal of his online platform X (formerly Twitter) from the European Union. That was “completely wrong,” Musk wrote on Platform
The news site Business Insider had previously reported, citing a person familiar with the process, that Musk wanted to withdraw X from the EU. The reason for this is the stricter EU rules for internet services, which are intended to curb misinformation.
Questionnaire from Brussels
The EU’s “Digital Services Act” (DSA) obliges large online platforms to take consistent and rapid action against, among other things, hate speech. X recently received a list of questions from the EU Commission, which wants to know more about how the service is fulfilling its obligations because of the war in the Middle East. The Brussels authorities have therefore initiated proceedings against the company.
So far, the short message service has not done enough to combat false information in connection with the attack on Israel by the militant Islamist Hamas, EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton said. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton referred, among other things, to reports of manipulated images and recordings from video games that were passed off as real recordings.
High penalty for X possible
Musk showed incomprehension about the questions. There are high penalties for DSA violations. Musk had already withdrawn the platform from the European commitment to combat misinformation in May. At the time, Breton wrote, referring to the DSA, that one could run away, but not hide.
Recently, Facebook parent Meta and the short video platform TikTok were reprimanded and reminded of compliance with their obligations under the “Digital Services Act”. The Facebook group Meta has not yet activated its Twitter competitor service Threads, which was launched this year, for the European Union, citing EU digital laws.