EU ‘transparency’ official threatens Elon Musk over free speech in Davos
European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová last week appeared to mock Elon Musk’s free speech approach and threatened the Twitter owner with sanctions if he does not do more to censor content on the platform.
Jourová made the remarks to Euronews Next in Davos, Switzerland where she attended the World Economic Forum’s elite summit.
Warning Musk that "The time of the Wild West is over," Jourová invoked the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which demands the censorship of "harmful content,” and mocked Musk’s “free speech absolutism” business model.
"We will have the Digital Services Act (DSA). We will have the Code of Practice as a part of this legislation. So, after Mr Musk took over Twitter with his ‘freedom of speech absolutism,’ we are the protectors of freedom of speech as well,” said Jourová, adding the qualifier that some speech is not permitted.
"But at the same time, we cannot accept, for instance, illegal content online and so on. So, our message was clear: we have rules which have to be complied with, otherwise there will be sanctions," she added, smiling.
During the Davos 2023 summit, the European Commission chief giggled when discussing censorship, telling Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) that the US will soon have “illegal hate speech” laws.
“For hate speech, we need the people who understand the language and the case law in the country, because what qualifies as hate speech, illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S., we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law,” said Jourová, laughing.
In her interview with Euronews Next, Jourová slammed the world’s richest man as unknowledgeable and irresponsible and suggested that the EU government’s “confidence” in Twitter “has been weakened.”
"I think that the confidence has been weakened. And I had a quite high level of confidence when it comes to Twitter," Jourová said. "I have to say that we worked with knowledgeable people - with the lawyers, with sociologists - who understood that they have to behave in some decent way not to cause really big harm to the society. I always felt that this notion of responsibility was there. So, this is what I don't feel from Elon Musk personally. But we will see.”
This was not the first time the EU threatened Musk over free speech on Twitter.
In October, a day after Musk assumed ownership of Twitter, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton warned Musk, “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.” Like Jourová, Breton also cited the government’s Digital Services Act, which EU MEP Rob Roos said provides “too much power for government technocrats.”
“I agree with everything you said,” Musk responded to Breton.
Breton had also been quick to threaten Musk with penalties in April when the Tesla CEO announced his bid to purchase Twitter.
“We welcome everyone,” Breton told the Financial Times in an April interview. “We are open but on our conditions. At least we know what to tell him: ‘Elon, there are rules. You are welcome but these are our rules. It’s not your rules which will apply here.’”
Breton then threatened Musk with penalties if he does not comply adequately.
“Anyone who wants to benefit from this market will have to [abide by] our rules,” Breton said. “The board [of Twitter] will have to make sure that if it operates in Europe it will have to [fulfill] the obligations, including moderation, open algorithms, freedom of speech, transparency in rules, obligations to comply with our own rules for hate speech, revenge porn [and] harassment. If [Twitter] does not comply with our law, there are sanctions — 6 percent of the revenue and, if they continue, banned from operating in Europe,” he added.
As part of the company’s downsizing shortly after he assumed control of the company, Musk closed the company’s Brussels office in November.
