The landing of the technological magnate Elon Musk in Twitter It has caused a worldwide stir. The businessman who owns Tesla and the SpaceX spaceflight company (which supplies NASA), defined himself as a fervent militant of freedom of expression, and under that banner he lifted the bans that weighed on the former US president donald trumpwho had been blocked by the platform after the capture of the Capitol in Washington, alluding that the former president was only promoting the riots and the attack on democracy.
Since then Trump has launched his own social networkTruth Social, and has refused to return to Twitter although he appreciated the nod from Musk, who has faced from massive resignations to a strong confrontation with Apple, who threatened to remove the blue bird social network from its download channel applications: something that Musk resolved in a one-on-one with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
But Musk and Twitter conflicts go further. If social networks had already been the subject of periodic debates and investigations conducted by the US Congress, the last of which was in September, now the European Union has joined the wave, which specifically threatens Twitter with fines and sanctions.
Threat
The EU has raised the possibility of a Twitter ban whom he warned that he must “significantly increase” efforts to comply with the new legislation. And he singled out Musk, who has “a big job ahead of him” to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires tech companies to address issues including abusive postings and misinformation. The EU commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, told the Tesla CEO that “Twitter will have to significantly increase efforts to pass the grade.”
“I welcome Elon Musk’s declarations of intent to prepare Twitter 2.0 for the DSA,” Breton pledged. “I am pleased that he has read it carefully and finds it a sensible approach to implement globally. But let’s also make it clear that there is still a lot of work ahead, as Twitter will need to implement transparent user policies, significantly strengthen content moderation, and protect freedom of expressionAnd he added that Twitter would have to “limit targeted advertising, including prohibiting the profiling of child users for advertising purposes.”
fines
Breton, who met Musk face-to-face on a video call, described the meeting as a “constructive working meeting” with an agreement between both parties to conduct a “stress test” on compliance with the law early next year. , and prepare for an independent audit of the platform. The Financial Times reported that Breton pointed out to Musk the penalties for breaking the law, which include fines of up to 6% of global turnover -which would be around 500 million dollars in the case of Twitter – or a temporary suspension of the service if the refusal to comply endangers the lives and safety of people. But the EU warns that the suspension will be given only as a “last resort”.
Musk has fired half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees since he bought the company for $44 billion in October, and another 1,200 were reported to have resigned in November after he told remaining staff to commit to being “tough” or leave. The company’s head of Trust and Safety, who oversaw content moderation on Twitter, has also resigned since the acquisition.
The departures, the fears that Musk will relax moderation policiesand a failed attempt to relaunch the verified user system, have caused a significant number of advertisers to also freeze their spending on the platform.
partners
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declined to say whether the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) was conducting a review of Twitter.
It was reported last month that CFIUS may investigate the level of non-US investment in the Musk acquisition, which includes financial backing from investors from Saudi Arabia, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal; Qatar Holding, which is part of the Qatar Investment Authority; Y Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, whose holding company is registered in the Cayman Islands. At a conference, Yellen said that CFIUS closely monitors acquisitions and investments in US companies by foreign buyers that could pose national security risks.
“We do not comment on work that is in progress. But if there are such risks, it would be appropriate for CFIUS to take a look,” said Yellen, who sided with Apple in the Twitter warning. “I think it’s a good thing, yeah Apple is watching the contenteither. Most broadcast stations are held to standards in terms of what they broadcast to the public. And Twitter really isn’t that different from other broadcast stations,” said Yellen, who concluded: “It’s a kind of control that I think is needed.”
