Elon Musk appeared to endorse a key European law regulating social media on Monday when he appeared in a video with Thierry Breton, a top EU commissioner and digital regulator.
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Elon Musk said he and the European Union are “very much on the same page” when it comes to regulation of social media as the Tesla boss appears set to complete his $44 billion takeover of Twitter.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, posted a video on his Twitter account showing him shaking hands with Musk at the Tesla gigafactory in Austin, Texas on Monday.
In the video, the EU official tells Musk that he explained the Digital Services Act to Musk.
“It fits pretty well with what you think we should do,” Breton tells Musk in a tweet that included the hashtag #DSA.
“I think it’s exactly aligned with my thinking,” Musk responds.
The two did not go into detail on the new law, which levies hefty fines on companies if they do not control illegal content.
The rules ban advertising aimed at children or based on religion, gender, race and political opinions, for example.
Musk secured the deal to buy Twitter last month with a pledge to revitalize the company and expand the number of users by cracking down on spam bots and reducing the amount of moderation to facilitate more “free speech.”
The billionaire’s comments prompted a rejoinder from Breton that Twitter must comply with new EU rules known as the Digital Services Act tackling illegal online content.
“Elon, there are rules,” Breton told the Financial Times last month.
“You are welcome but these are our rules. It’s not your rules which will apply here.”
Breton’s comments came days after the EU passed a sweeping bill called the Digital Services Act, which will require sites to more strictly monitor material about pandemics, wars, natural disasters and other emergencies that governments deem to be “disinformation.”
It will also require them to take a harder line against what governments deem to be hate speech and harassment.
If Twitter or any other social media site fails to comply with the rules, the EU has the power to fine them up to 6% of their revenue — or even ban them from operating in Europe altogether.
“If [Twitter] does not comply with our law, there are sanctions,” Breton said.
“Anyone who wants to benefit from this market will have to fulfill our rules. The board [of Twitter] will have to make sure that if it operates in Europe it will have to fulfill the obligations, including moderation, open algorithms, freedom of speech, transparency in rules, obligations to comply with our own rules for hate speech, revenge porn [and] harassment.”
In the video, Breton said he met with Musk to explain the finer points of the Digital Services Act, a forthcoming law that imposes higher content moderation standards on tech platforms.
Asked by Breton whether he felt the DSA "fits pretty well" with how Musk believes platforms should be run, the billionaire Tesla (TSLA) CEO and prospective owner of Twitter said it is "exactly aligned with [what] we're thinking."
"Very much agree with — it's been a great discussion and I really think that — I agree with everything you said, really, I think we're very much of the same mind and, you know, just anything that my companies can do that would be beneficial to Europe, we want do that," Musk said in the video.
Musk later replied to Breton's tweet containing the video, reiterating his positive reflections on the exchange.
"Great meeting! We are very much on the same page," Musk tweeted.
Despite expressing support for Europe's new legal requirements, Musk did not appear to be making an expanded new commitment to content moderation. Musk has previously said he wants to open up "free speech" on Twitter by easing its enforcement of content moderation policies, but has also said he plans for the platform to abide by local laws and regulations on speech — and that if citizens wish to apply different rules to platforms, they can do so via their legislatures.
Some experts have warned that such a narrow approach to content moderation — doing just enough to avoid breaking local speech laws but going no further to moderate otherwise objectionable content — could give a boost to authoritarian regimes with a track record of outlawing critical speech.
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