Thierry Breton has chosen the path of firmness with Elon Musk.

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market warned the Twitter boss on Wednesday that he should “significantly increase efforts” to comply with EU rules, during a telephone interview.

"Let's be clear: there is still a tremendous amount of work to do" and Twitter will need to "significantly strengthen content moderation, protect freedom of expression and resolutely tackle misinformation", the commissioner explained, according to a report. of the exchange communicated to Brussels.

The day before, Twitter had announced the mass reinstatement of banned accounts and the end of the fight against disinformation on Covid-19.

Musk's May Commitments

Thierry Breton also recalled that Elon Musk had undertaken in May to comply with the new European legislation on online platforms.

"All of this requires artificial intelligence and sufficient human resources, both in terms of numbers and skills," said the commissioner, in charge of digital.

In the end, he described the discussion as constructive.

Elon Musk and Thierry Breton "agreed that the Commission services will carry out a stress test at Twitter's headquarters in early 2023, which will allow Twitter to assess its compliance even before the legal deadlines".

Disinformation, hate speech, counterfeits… The very large online platforms will have to apply “around the summer of 2023” the new EU legislation which came into force in November to eliminate lawless areas on the Internet.

These rules include the obligation to act "promptly" to remove any illegal content as soon as the platform becomes aware of it, or the obligation to inform the judicial authorities when they suspect a "serious criminal offence".

They also include prohibitions, such as those on using “sensitive” user data (gender, political leanings, religious affiliation, etc.) for targeted advertising.

Thierry Breton uses Mastodon

The major platforms will be required to assess the risks associated with the use of their services themselves and will have to put in place the means to mitigate them, such as content moderation.

They will also have to provide the regulator with access to their data and will be audited once a year, at their own expense, by independent bodies.

They will be placed directly under the supervision of the European Commission, which can impose fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover, or even a ban on operating in the EU in the event of repeated serious infringements.

In a tweet on Wednesday evening, Thierry Breton also sent a link to a reminder of the European rules published… on his Mastodon account, Twitter's rival social network.

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