If Elon Musk doesn’t follow our laws, X will be banned from Europe,” says EU leader

Elon Muskwhich acquired the Twitter by the end of 2022 US$ 44 billionhas been facing problems not only in Brazil, where it had a clash with the Supreme Federal Court and recently even closed its headquarters in the country and laid off all employees.

The situation is similar in other countries, and the social network could be shut down by a series of court decisions. One option would be to operate only in the United States, where there is no legislation against hate speech, fake news, and conspiracy theories of all kinds, from the far right to flat-earthers.

X/Twitter may be banned in the European Union

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica, one of the most important in the country, published an interview with Sandro Gozi, French member of the European Parliament, on Monday (19). In it, Gozi warns that X Network could be banned in the European Union if Musk fails to comply with local laws against hate speech and fake news.

Gozi, a member of the same party as French President Emmanuel Macron, stressed that “online violence always results in offline violence” and that “the far right masks its violence as freedom of expression“.

Similarly, Musk challenges the Brazilian judiciary, attacking Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), relying on a distorted interpretation of “freedom of expression”. Minister imposed fines on X network for not deleting posts and accounts investigated in inquiries into fake news and attempted coup d’état, where the platform was allegedly being used to commit or incite crimes.

X/Twitter is not following EU rules

In Europe, the situation is similar. The interview with Sandro Gozi, threatening to ban the X network from the European Union, came a week after Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, warned Elon Musk about the need to follow the rules of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), ahead of a live broadcast of the billionaire with Donald Trump, former US president and candidate for re-election, on X.

Since last December, Musk’s network has been under investigation by the European Commission for failing to comply with the DSA, especially for promoting disinformation. Breton feared that the live broadcast between Musk and Trump could generate content capable of inciting violence and public disorder, recalling recent violent episodes in the United Kingdom against immigrants, fueled by far-right fake news on X.

“The DSA rules apply to everyone, including Musk, a user with over 190 million followers, and must be followed by users in the European Union. We are vigilant for any violation of the DSA and will not hesitate to use all our resources, including interim measures if necessary, to protect European citizens.“, declarou Thierry Breton.

Musk responded to the European Commissioner with a meme from the film “Tropic Thunder”, accompanied by an offensive phrase. The social network X has around 300 million users worldwide, 100 million of which are in the European Union alone.