Monday, May 9, 2022, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, to whom we owe more and more tech-related projects, met with Elon Musk in Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin. The two men exchanged views on Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and in particular about the moderation needed on the platform.
Thierry Breton visits Elon Musk in the United States
In a video posted on Thierry Breton’s Twitter account, we see a discussion between the two men about the regulation of social networks and the Digital Services Act (DSA), recently approved by the European institutions. The European Commissioner has clearly made the billionaire bend, promising against all odds, to “to respect the future European regulation. After claiming an extreme vision of freedom of expression and assuring that there would be no moderation on Twitter once the social network was in his hands, Musk seems to be on the same wavelength as Thierry Breton.
Tens of millions of U.S. homes will have free or nearly free Internet access
However, for the past few weeks, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX has been hammering away at his idealistic vision of an Internet where you could say whatever you want including if it hurts. This doctrine is obviously not shared by European leaders, even less so since the DSA passed. On the European continent, there has been a struggle for years to a better moderation of social networks. In this respect, the agreement on the DSA is historic. It is a new stone in the regulation of the digital space and social networks will have to comply with it.
Twitter’s future boss says he is ready to collaborate
Elon Musk’s reaction is amazing. In the video, Thierry Breton uses Elon Musk as a “witness”. The European Commissioner does not hide his satisfaction. He explains at the beginning of the video that the future boss of Twitter “understands very well the interest of the Digital Services Act and its stakes for social networks”. For his part, Elon Musk assures us that he is ready to collaborate on everything to “make Twitter better”.
This is a small victory for the former French minister, who succeeded with this surprise visit, to make Musk bend. With the DSA, the European Union will be able to condemn Twitter to pay up to 6% of its global turnover in case of “repeated serious breaches”. The vision of total freedom of expression advocated by Elon Musk will certainly not have its place on Twitter.
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