The Digital Services Act that the EU proudly proclaims is nothing more than the government (in this case, the EU) deciding what information is permitted to be viewed by their subjects. This Act is now being used to pummel X into censoring free speech.
Sundance has done the world a service by delineating just what the EU is trying to do here.
The European Union has fined the X social media platform (formerly Twitter), owned by Elon Musk and his investment group, $140 million (usd) for violations of the EU Digital Services Act. The decision by the EU is likely to create even more friction between President Trump and the European Union. However, this problem is not difficult to solve.
The collective government within the EU accuse Elon Musk and X of permitting misinformation, disinformation and malinformation to appear on the platform.
The European DSA is ultimately designed to control information, that reality should not be debated. All efforts to control traditional and social media are efforts to control information.
The specifics of the reasoning for the fine are typically European. (1) Twitter allows ordinary people to deliver information at the same level as people who should be defined as more important. (2) Advertisers of those who pay for promotion of information on X are not easily identifiable – people need to figure it out on their own. (3) It is too difficult to figure out who is providing the information.
Basically, all of the EU concerns center around information control. It’s really an ideology issue. In the outlook of the EU, bureaucrats and elites feel they are superior and must rule/protect the people under them. Ordinary people having access to information that may or may not be approved by the EU is the underlying issue.
Stopping this nonsense is not complicated.
Attach a $1,000 free speech support fee to every European automobile sold in the USA.
Their pontificating ideology is less important than their need for money.
Rubio hits the nail on the head. This is an attack on free speech in this country. That is why Hillary Clinton was such a staunch supporter of the DSA when it was proposed. The EU is becoming more and more like Communist China every day.
Is this the EU’s response to Trump shutting down USAID and its censorship components? Are those censors in exile putting pressure on the EU to do this?
The EU has no intention to “protect the people under them.” They hate their “subjects” almost as much as our Uniparty hates us! Instead, they seek to protect themselves, by keeping the people under them in the dark.
If the EU is successful in this attempt to control the flow of information, when scandals occur, they will only see sunlight if it benefits the ruling class. The current scandal in Ukraine would have no chance at sunlight if the EU can control the media.