Elon Musk's Twitter will have to comply with EU rules

Europe 1 with AFP 3:38 p.m., April 26, 2022

The American social network Twitter, in the process of being bought by businessman Elon Musk, "will have to adapt completely to European rules" whatever the orientations of the new shareholder in terms of freedom of expression, declared Tuesday to AFP the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.

Elon Musk promises more freedom on Twitter

"Whatever the new shareholding, Twitter will now have to adapt completely to European rules", warned Thierry Breton, referring in particular to the new regulation on digital services, Digital Services Act (DSA), concluded on Saturday by the legislators of the EU and which will force the major platforms to better combat illegal content.

"Whether it is on online harassment, the sale of counterfeit products, child pornography, calls for terrorist acts, Twitter will have to adapt to our European regulations which do not exist in the United States", insisted the commissioner. , at the origin of this new European legislation with his counterpart in Competition, Margrethe Vestager.

Elon Musk has promised more freedom on Twitter, sparking heated debate over the social network's future, with some worrying the platform could become more toxic.

He acknowledged, however, that there were limits imposed by law.

The DSA, which will apply in a few months, once its legislative process has been completed, updates the e-commerce directive, born 20 years ago when tech giants such as Facebook (Meta) or Amazon were still embryonic.

Objective: to put an end to areas of lawlessness and abuse on the Internet, while better defending the rights of users.

The new regulation stipulates the obligation to "promptly" remove any illegal content (according to national and European laws) as soon as a platform becomes aware of it.

It forces social networks to suspend users who "frequently" violate the law.

Brussels monitoring 

At the heart of the project, new obligations imposed on "very large platforms", those with "more than 45 million active users" in the EU, including Twitter.

These players must themselves assess the risks associated with the use of their services and put in place the appropriate means to remove problematic content.

They will be imposed increased transparency on their data and recommendation algorithms.

They will be audited once a year, at their expense, by independent bodies and placed under the supervision of the European Commission, which may impose fines of up to 6% of their annual sales in the event of repeated infringements.

"We now have a regulation, it is extremely clear. It will require, in order to have the right to operate in Europe, that the platforms adapt to the rules", estimated Thierry Breton.

"If it hadn't been for the DSA, we could have had a Twitter that does things that may be against the general European interest," he said.

But, "it is not his regulations that will prevail in Europe, it is ours to which he will have to adapt".

Regarding a possible return of former US President Donald Trump to Twitter, Mr. Breton recalled that the DSA also regulates banishment decisions, setting conditions and possibilities for appeal.

“We will have very clear, very precise, very democratic, very readable rules to decide on the banning of a user who may be a necessity,” he said.

"With us, banishment will obviously be possible, and necessary in certain cases, but under democratic control".