Elon Musk accuses the European Commission of a secret censorship deal

Elon Musk set the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons yesterday when he alleged via tweet:

‘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.’

It was written in reply to a tweet by Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission EU Fit for Digital Age and Commissioner for Competition.

They wrote:

‘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 Service Act.’

For those who actually use social media, rather than pick apart its database, X (formally Twitter) is easily the most transparent and responsive platform on the market. Competitors such as Facebook are opaque creations that engage with customers via AI bots inspired by Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

Trust me, I am still traumatised from the last experience with Facebook where they all-but destroyed The Spectator Australia account after an AI bot translated the text on a Hamas headband (in a stock image) and accused us of spreading hate speech. At least there are humans at X and a boss who sorts out accidental censorship failings himself.

When it comes to the allegations and claims made by the European Commission, the community notes section under the post points out many failings and apparent mistakes.

The bigger and more important question is, do we really want the European Commission dictating the terms of engagement to X? It seems no more or less absurd than Australia’s eSafety Commissioner attempting to extend her censorial demands across the globe.

In response to the European Commission’s post, Elon Musk replied: ‘The DSA IS misinformation.’

Commentator Michael Shellenberger added, (to the Commission), ‘You are a totalitarian menace.’

Shellenberger had a more involved discussion about the European Commissioner Thierry Breton and the AI Pact in late 2023. In particular, Shellenberger took issue with Mr Breton’s comment, ‘I am the enforcer. I represent the law, which is the will of the state and the people.’

For context, at the same time as that comment was made, Mr Breton was discussing the voluntary misinformation code which, like all things voluntary, was about to be made mandatory.

‘It’s a voluntary basis, so we don’t force anyone to join the code of practice on disinformation, Breton said. ‘I just reminded (Musk and Twitter) that by August 25, it will become a legal obligation to fight disinformation.’

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/07/elon-musk-accuses-the-european-commission-of-a-secret-censorship-deal/

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