Musk vs. EU
The European Commission will be taking X owner Elon Musk to court over violations of the Digital Services Act. The charges were published on Friday, marking the first time a company has come under the new law.
Reasons: The investigation opened in December 2023 over concerns about how X regulates its blue checks and ads. In its findings, the Commission wrote that Musk’s revamp of X’s verification system “negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with.”
The Digital Services Act states that large companies must provide a database recording all advertisements, including who funded them and who the targeted audiences are. But investigators documented in their findings that X’s database for ads is not “searchable and reliable,” making it difficult for “emerging risks” to be identified.
Fined: If the court backs the finding, X could be hit with a 6 percent fine on its annual worldwide revenue, adding up to at least a couple hundred million dollars.
Comments: Musk posted on his platform that he is looking forward to “a very public battle in court so that the people of Europe can know the truth.”
European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton responded, “Be our guest.” He said separately, “If our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes.”
“Our view” is terminology worth noting. This isn’t about Europe preserving what is true or just; it’s about getting power. The way Europe is filtering online information shows this.
Secret deal? Musk says the Commission offered “an illegal secret deal: If we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”
Breton insisted, “There has never been—and will never be—any ‘secret deal.’ With anyone.”
Censorship: Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in reference to other EU laws regulating the Internet: “This is a slippery slope. Using this legislation, the EU will soon be able to silence any message it doesn’t like—such as the message you are reading right now!”
To learn more about how Europe is taking over the Internet worldwide, read “Germany Is Taking Control of the Internet.”
