What you need to know
- Elon Musk has reportedly sat with the EU's commissioner on a call.
- During the call, Musk was threatened with a possible ban unless he abided by the EU's strict content moderation rules.
- The new rules fall under the Digital Services Act, which is said to be a new standard for all tech giants.
Elon Musk's new Twitter is facing increased scrutiny from the regulators of the US and EU over the new ownership.
According to a recent Financial Times report, the EU allegedly warned Musk with a ban unless the social networking site complies with stringent content filtering guidelines.
The FT report, which relied on sources with knowledge of the situation, said that the warning is believed to have come from the EU during a video chat with Musk and Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner leading a new Digital Services Act.
This comes amidst US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen's implication that Washington has been reviewing Musk's controversial purchase of Twitter.
Breton reportedly advised Musk to follow the checklist of rules that may include making it clear the criteria for which a user may be banned from Twitter. Following the initial rollout of the new Twitter Blue subscription, several celebrities were banned from the platform for impersonating other users, including Musk himself. Following the acts, Musk announced that users will be suspended for impersonating others. However, many of these users were later reinstated, including former president Donald Trump after Musk conducted a poll on whether he should be reinstated.
In addition, Musk must agree to tackle disinformation "aggressively" on the platform and must adhere to an "extensive independent audit" of Twitter by 2023.
The new rules are allegedly covered by the EU's new Digital Services Act, which appears to be a standard that other tech giants are required to abide by. Musk's Twitter may be shut down entirely in Europe or be forced to pay 6% of the platform's annual global revenue if he violates the aforementioned restrictions.
According to the people familiar with these conversations, Musk repeatedly praised the new Digital Service Act (DSA) during the call as "very sensible," indicating that these regulations should be implemented globally.
Very recently, Twitter has indicated that it wants to be the new town square of the internet. Twitter 2.0 also revealed new changes and other strict policies that are supposedly unchanged from the initial version.
While the new version of Twitter is said to be focused on experimentation, its Trust & Safety team promises to keep the platform safe from hateful conduct, abusive behavior, and any violation of its rules. Content moderation will continue to seek out and address violative content on the platform.
