Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe’s new social media rules.
Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc’s content rules.
If Musk fails to comply, the EU’s rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.
Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X’s own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.
Of course impact is going to be limited. The alternative being unlimited? I don’t think Musk deserves most of his wealth, but for the penelty of something like this to be taking literally all of it away would be insane. It’s always going to be limited. That’s basically what laws do. They should be proportional.
The alternative? What alternative?
My only point here is this isn’t going to have any major impact on his day to day operations regardless of how you try to spin my comments. Not sure why this is such an argument for you.
6% of revenue is apparently 300 million. IRC last year, twitter had 1.2 billion in interest payments, but only 1.1 billion in cash flow. Unless twitter has suddenly increased cash flow or repaid loans, a 300 million dollar fine may mean it’s impossible for twitter to repay interest payments. It’s potentially an existential threat and could tip twitter into bankrupcy.
It’s not nothing and it’s certainly better than nothing. And that 6%? That’s just the tip of the shit berg.
For example, Germany NetzDG fines can be as high as 50 million euros… PER CASE. Tech Crunch:
Obviously Musk is a top tier genius with a full legal department, and I’m sure twitter clamped down on illegal hate speech in the past half year so that only 600 cases are reported to German authorities, but that 300 million may just be the trickle of shit before the pipe fully bursts.
In Musk’s defense:
Twitter’s press office auto-replied with a poop emoji in response to an emailed request for comment.
The alternative to them being limited is unlimited. There’s no in between for those words. It’s either limited or it isn’t and is unlimited.
I get wanting more, but what percentage is “right” for you. There has to be a percent that’s acceptable, and anyone can always say it isn’t enough, unless it’s unlimited which would be rediculous.
