Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has claimed that the European Union tried to coerce him into an allegedly deceitful deal to secretly carry out censorship within his social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Musk claimed that the EU-designed agreements were accepted by other platforms operating in Europe, but that he has rejected this deal. (Related: ‘Illegal secret deal:’ Musk claims European Union tried to blackmail X into censorship.)
On Friday, July 12, the EU used its Digital Services Act (DSA) against X, charging the platform of being in violation of EU regulations and threatening the company with disciplinary fines.
In response to these threats, Musk counterattacked by denouncing the DSA as a "canned misinformation" source. This attack then led to Musk disclosing that the EU had allegedly solicited him into agreeing to a deal that will allow the EU to censor content on X it does not approve of.
"The European Commission offered X 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," Musk posted on his X account.
Musk did not reveal any additional details about the terms of the reported "secret deal."
EU claims X has duty to deal with "illegal content" on its platform
The EU denounced X for its lack of transparency and stated that social media platforms are bound to counteract "illegal content" along with "risks to public security" as per its regulations.
In addition, the EU claimed that it was dissatisfied with X's blue check system, considering it incompatible with the "industry practice."
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"Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information," posted European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton. "Now with X, our preliminary view is that: They deceive users, they infringe [on the DSA]. X has now the right of defense – but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes."
In case of non-compliance with EU's conditions, X could face consequences, along with a possible fine equivalent to six percent of its total worldwide turnover.
In a separate exchange on the platform, Musk threatened he would advance his case in court over the European Commission's charges.
The DSA, a group of sweeping regulations that holds platforms like with Facebook, YouTube and others liable for protecting European users and removing harmful content and misinformation, had taken effect in February.
The charges against X are the first to be released under the latest law, with infringements carrying heavy fines.
Musk's rough words were in reaction to a previous post from Margrethe Vestager, the outgoing Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition.
"In our view, X doesn't comply with the DSA in key transparency areas. It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository, and blocks access to data for researchers. It's the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act," Vestager wrote in her post.
Follow Censorship.news for more news about the social media platform censorship happening in Europe.
Watch the video below about Elon Musk exposing the secret illegal global censorship system.
This video is from the Rick Langley channel on Brighteon.com.
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