Elon Musk is now calling for the dissolution of the European Union as a result of it fined him $140 million for violating a legislation he as soon as stated was “precisely aligned” along with his imaginative and prescient for (what was then referred to as) Twitter.
And he’s doing it by mendacity about what the high quality is definitely for.
The EU hit X with a $140 million high quality final week for violating the Digital Providers Act (DSA). However (regardless of what you might have heard) this isn’t some censorship overreach by Brussels bureaucrats. The violations—which have been identified for over a yr—don’t have anything to do with content material moderation. Zero. Anybody telling you in any other case is mendacity.
The high quality is for 3 particular transparency failures: deceptive customers when Elon modified verification from precise verification to “pay $8 for a checkmark,” sustaining a damaged advert repository, and refusing to share required knowledge with researchers.
The European Union has introduced a high quality of $140 million in opposition to Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform previously often called Twitter, for a number of failures to adjust to guidelines governing giant digital platforms. A European Fee spokesperson stated the high quality in opposition to X’s holding firm was as a result of platform’s deceptive use of a blue examine mark to establish verified customers, a poorly functioning promoting repository, and a failure to supply efficient knowledge entry for researchers.
Once more, let’s repeat: it has nothing, by any means, to do with the way in which X handles content material moderation or what speech it permits on its platform. As Daphne Keller explains:
Don’t let anybody — not even the US Secretary of State — let you know that the European Fee’s €120 million enforcement in opposition to Elon Musk’s X below the Digital Service Act (DSA) is about censorship or about what speech customers can submit on the platform. That may, certainly, be attention-grabbing. However this high quality is simply the EU implementing some regular, boring necessities of its legislation. Many of those necessities resemble present US legal guidelines or proposals which have garnered bipartisan help.
There are three fees in opposition to X, which all stem from a multi-year investigation that was launched in 2023. One is about verification — X’s blue checkmarks on consumer accounts — and two are about transparency. These fees don’t have anything to do with what content material is on X, or what consumer speech the platform ought to or mustn’t permit. There’s loads of EU political disapproval about these issues, for positive. However the EU didn’t select to choose a struggle about them. As an alternative, it went after X for violating far more fundamental, simple provisions of the DSA. These violations had been flagrant sufficient that it could be bizarre if the EU hadn’t issued a high quality.
Each Daphne and I’ve criticized makes an attempt by EU officers to abuse the DSA in pursuit of censorship. I instantly referred to as it out when former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton clearly went means over the road final yr, a transfer that rapidly led to Breton shedding his job. I’ve been extremely crucial of the DSA for years, so if this had been really an abuse of the legislation for censorship, I’d be first in line to name it out and aspect with Elon (I’ve achieved it in different circumstances as properly).
However that is not that. This has nothing to do with “content material moderation” or “censorship” in any means.
And but, Elon Musk is working round pretending it’s a free speech concern, and his once-again buddies within the Trump administration are bolstering that false declare.
As Daphne identified, the EU might examine sure facets of X’s content material moderation, and that might result in critical questions on censorship and free speech. However they haven’t achieved so.
Actually, this transfer is little completely different than the Trump FTC taking motion in opposition to a Chinese language firm for violating COPPA. Which it has achieved. Did we see Chinese language politicians lose their minds over that? Did we see the CEO of that firm, Apitor Expertise, name for dissolving the US like Elon Musk is now calling for dissolving the EU? No. No, we didn’t.
However as a result of the Elon Musks/JD Vances/Marco Rubios of the world can solely suppose when it comes to memes and tradition wars, they know that if they simply insist that that is about censorship, that the media will cowl it that means, and the ignorant rabble on X will purchase their model of the story.
All that is much more unbelievable as a result of Elon Musk advised the EU that he was solely on board with the DSA whereas he was within the course of of shopping for Twitter. Sure, the legislation he’s now claiming is censorship tyranny requiring the dissolution of a whole governmental physique is the exact same legislation he declared was “precisely aligned” along with his imaginative and prescient for the platform.
On the time, we referred to as out how the EU was clearly taking part in Musk, who appeared to haven’t any clue what he was really endorsing. It was apparent he hadn’t learn or understood the DSA. However there he was, recording a video claiming good alignment with a regulatory framework he’s now treating as an existential risk to free speech.
So it’s fairly wealthy for him to whine about it now.
After all, Musk isn’t simply misrepresenting the high quality. He’s responding with a collection of escalating tantrums designed to feed his false censorship narrative. First, he referred to as for abolishing the complete EU:
Then got here the petty retaliation. First, he canceled the EU Fee’s X promoting account. X claimed it was as a result of they “exploited” X’s advert platform by posting a hyperlink that seemed to be a video, however replies to that tweet instructed many, many individuals stated that claimed “exploit” was not an exploit in any respect, however a software that many others had used.
After that, Musk began threatening to punish EU Commissioners instantly for the high quality. In doing so he incorrectly references the Streisand Impact:
As the coiner of “The Streisand Impact,” I’d similar to to level out that this isn’t what the Streisand Impact means in any respect.
Every transfer—calling to dissolve the EU, canceling advertisements, threatening people—is transparently designed to fabricate a free speech disaster the place none exists. It’s efficiency artwork for an viewers that gained’t trouble checking whether or not the high quality is definitely about censorship (it isn’t).
And he’ll probably preserve escalating with the assistance of the Trump administration.
The DSA definitely has some points, however this high quality shouldn’t be one in every of them. However that hasn’t stopped Elon Musk and his crew of political supporters from pretending that that is some big assault on American free speech. It’s not. Not more than the FTC’s high quality in opposition to Apitor was an assault on China-based speech.
However, after all, a lot of the media will proceed to faux that is about free speech. They are going to body it that means and for years into the longer term we’ll hear false tales—that the media and tons of different individuals will merely settle for as true—that the EU fined X and Elon $140 million for not censoring individuals.
That is the template now. Violate pretty modest laws, declare it’s censorship, get your political allies to amplify the lie, use it to de-legitimize any try at platform accountability for actively deceptive customers. It’s not about free speech. It by no means was. It’s about securing freedom from accountability whereas wielding the ability of each non-public platforms and state assets to crush anybody who tries to impose it.
So yeah, anytime you hear somebody declare the EU fined Musk for not censoring individuals, name it out. As a result of the reality issues, even when highly effective individuals would like you didn’t discover they’re mendacity.
Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU High quality That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship
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