MUSK FACING WAR WITH EUROPE
December 16, 2022 -Durt Fibo

Upon Elon Musk’s termination of the Twitter accounts of various American journalists, including some who work with The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Intercept, European leaders and regulators quickly spoke out, indicating that Musk is rocketing towards a collision with EU laws.

On her own Twitter, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova wrote: “The reports of the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter are worrying. The EU Digital Services Act requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced by our Media Freedom Act. Elon Musk should be aware of this. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon”.

At a Berlin press conference today, the Deputy Government Spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann confirmed that the executive is “observing” the situation on Twitter with a certain “growing concern,” including the latest banning of “American journalists”. The German Foreign Ministry wrote (also on Twitter) that “freedom of the press cannot be switched on and off at will. Journalists below [referring to a screenshot of the banned accounts] can no longer follow, comment and criticize us either. We have a problem with that, Twitter.”

As I wrote on November 25 (“MUSK AMOK IN EUROPE AND AFRICA”), Twitter, like all internet and social media companies active on the continent, must at all times be in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as any other EU laws covering consumer, commerce and human rights. With his zonked disinhibition and disregard of ethics, Elon Musk might become the man personally responsible for getting Twitter banned from the entire European Union.