from the such-a-fucking-snowflake dept
Elon Musk is now calling for the dissolution of the European Union as a result of it fined him $140 million for violating a regulation he as soon as mentioned was “precisely aligned” together with his imaginative and prescient for (what was then known as) Twitter.
And he’s doing it by mendacity about what the wonderful is definitely for.
The EU hit X with a $140 million wonderful final week for violating the Digital Providers Act (DSA). However (regardless of what you’ll 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 wonderful 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 wonderful of $140 million in opposition to Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform previously referred to as Twitter, for a number of failures to adjust to guidelines governing giant digital platforms. A European Fee spokesperson mentioned the wonderful in opposition to X’s holding firm was because of the platform’s deceptive use of a blue verify 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, in any way, 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 fascinating. However this wonderful is simply the EU imposing some regular, boring necessities of its regulation. Many of those necessities resemble current US legal guidelines or proposals which have garnered bipartisan help.
There are three expenses 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 person accounts — and two are about transparency. These expenses don’t have anything to do with what content material is on X, or what person speech the platform ought to or shouldn’t enable. There’s loads of EU political disapproval about these issues, for positive. However the EU didn’t select to choose a combat about them. As an alternative, it went after X for violating way more fundamental, simple provisions of the DSA. These violations have been flagrant sufficient that it might be bizarre if the EU hadn’t issued a wonderful.
Each Daphne and I’ve criticized makes an attempt by EU officers to abuse the DSA in pursuit of censorship. I instantly known 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 have been really an abuse of the regulation for censorship, I’d be first in line to name it out and aspect with Elon (I’ve finished 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 subject, and his once-again associates within the Trump administration are bolstering that false declare.
As Daphne identified, the EU might examine sure features of X’s content material moderation, and that might result in critical questions on censorship and free speech. However they haven’t finished so.
Truthfully, this transfer is little totally different than the Trump FTC taking motion in opposition to a Chinese language firm for violating COPPA. Which it has finished. 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 assume 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 unimaginable as a result of Elon Musk instructed the EU that he was completely on board with the DSA whereas he was within the course of of shopping for Twitter. Sure, the regulation he’s now claiming is censorship tyranny requiring the dissolution of a complete governmental physique is the exact same regulation he declared was “precisely aligned” together with his imaginative and prescient for the platform.
On the time, we known as out how the EU was clearly taking part in Musk, who appeared to don’t have 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 menace to free speech.
So it’s fairly wealthy for him to whine about it now.
In fact, Musk isn’t simply misrepresenting the wonderful. He’s responding with a collection of escalating tantrums designed to feed his false censorship narrative. First, he known as for abolishing your entire 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 recommended many, many individuals mentioned 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 wonderful. 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 adverts, 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 wonderful is definitely about censorship (it isn’t).
And he’ll probably maintain escalating with the assistance of the Trump administration.
The DSA definitely has some points, however this wonderful 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 wonderful in opposition to Apitor was an assault on China-based speech.
However, after all, many of the media will proceed to fake that is about free speech. They are going to body it that means and for years into the long run 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 rules, 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 facility of each personal platforms and state sources 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.
Filed Underneath: content material moderation, dsa, elon musk, eu, wonderful, free speech, jd vance, marco rubio, transparency, verification
Firms: twitter, x
