Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe’s new social media rules.

Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc’s content rules.

If Musk fails to comply, the EU’s rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.

Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X’s own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.

  • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    This is some “quality” reporting. Nowhere does the EU says to remove “graphic violent images”, it’s only asking for transparency in what gets removed and the removal of disinformation and calls to violence.

    • atetulo@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for clearing that up.

      Modern “journalists” are almost always scum.

    • Spedwell@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m glad to see for once the fines are proportional to revenue, and not a fixed amount. 6% hurts.

      • Garbanzo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Will it hurt though? How are they going to collect the 6%? Do US based banks cooperate with the EU on this kind of thing? What happens if Musk just tells them to go fuck themselves?

        • Dr Cog@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I assume EU-based ISPs will be forced to ban access to the website for noncompliance, otherwise it would have literally no teeth whatsoever

            • viking@infosec.pub
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              1 year ago

              Nah it’s pretty good for the internet. We also blocked Russian propaganda outlets and shit in the EU. It’s much nicer.

                • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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                  1 year ago

                  Our laws are older and much more robust than the ones in the US.

                  They also adapt with the times.

                  But that just might have to do with the fact that EU politics don’t cater that much to corporations but instead to the people that elected them.

        • uis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Probably a lot of Xi tter customers headquatered in EU. They can say to their own banks to not send money.

        • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is in the EU, so your emojis don’t make sense. But you are right, rich people get off way too easy the world over.

    • pianoplant@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You’re thinking of profit. Revenue is all money coming in before expenses. Revenue is still a big number even if they’re losing money.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is not toothless…well it is a bit in that they constantly warn instead of imposing the fines but 6% of revenue has fuck all to do with net profit(which is always positive or else it would be a loss).

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      EU can only penalize him on revenue (not profit) in the EU. So likely small fries compared to the billions of dollars of devaluation and advertiser revenue he’s already squandered on his crusade.

  • Smacks@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    He won’t, we all know he won’t. He’d sooner get Twitter banned from Europe than actually try to improve his platform.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      That is such a win though.

      Although the powers that manipulate Elmo won’t like it when they can’t manipulate the politics in the EU anymore.

  • ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    A porn actress was made accountable for similar actions in less time and with more impact.

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    1 year ago

    If that is Net Revenue, I have some bad news for the EU. 🤣🤣🤣

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      I think you’re thinking of profits, which is revenue minus costs.

      EU fines are a percentage of global revenue, which means all the money you make in any way, anywhere in the world, before subtracting any bullshit.

      • JohnEdwa@kbin.social
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        Which was $4.4 billion in 2022 and is estimated to be roughly $3 billion for 2023, so the maximum fine would be 180-264 million depending on which figure is used.
        For comparison, the net loss (not profit) for 2022 for twitter was 270 million.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Per occasion, and the Commission can also create a moderation enforcement team specifically for Twitter, basically forcing Twitter to have moderation, and put the cost of said moderation on Twitter, as charges separate to the fine.

        • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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          1 year ago

          Think your stats are off? You can see a post in my history with more EU focused math. If yours is better let me know and I’ll update ;)

    • detalferous@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The “brilliance” of Elon’s plan: he is impervious to EU fines because he doesn’t make any money.

    • ???@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      If that is gross revenue, I have bad news for the EU. “X” is, IIRC, operating in the red since Musk bought it.

      • Airazz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s revenue, not profit. “X, formerly Twitter” still gets paid by advertisers, even if the amount is much lower than it used to be.

  • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Is this the thing that finally makes Musk feel some pain? You can’t wiggle out of this one, EU law is pretty tight on this stuff.

      • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Although I can understand that perspective, I honestly think that he’s actually just very, very dumb and completely clueless about how money actually works and how businesses function. He’s rich enough to never have had to learn any of that and spend his way through failure after failure. I am absolutely certain that he believed that he’d run in there, steer the ship right, and all would be well.

        • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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          Yeah absolutely, be thought that it was easy because he didn’t pause to consider any of the confounding factors - the same mistake he always makes, self drive to Mars bases he gets fixated on the fact it’s possible and doesn’t really consider the many things making it difficult.

          I think he thought that he’d go in and don’ta big lever that turns it from biasing the left and amplifying people hating billionaires then when he turned it off everyone would cheer and clap. He’s the typical idiot that has shitty political options and thinks everyone else secretly agrees bit only he’s breve enough to say it.

        • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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          No he’s very smart in that he’s using Xitter to increase his influence, and thereby his wealth in the long term. Gonna cost him but he’ll probably come out net-positive, even if Xitter doesn’t.

        • emptiestplace@lemmy.ml
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          Either you’re oblivious, or you’re being paid to prop up this “Elon’s just a big dummy” idea.

          You know he had a fair bit of involvement in some other businesses, right? His destructive behaviour has been on an entirely different level from the moment he acquired Twitter.

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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            The investors that gave him money to buy Twitter aren’t going to be happy if he intentionally squanders their money.

          • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            On the one hand, you insult me. Then you make a comment that supports my position. Very odd.

  • NekoKamiGuru@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    Purging the images off social media will make it easier to deny that the atrocities ever happened. Keep them there in all their gory uglyness , perhaps put a spoiler tag over them to prevent someone with a feeble constitution from accidentally stumbling onto them and accidentally being triggered , but leave them there as evidence of the evil that happened.

    • Zev@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      It should be archived and put somewhere people can go and access it for historical and educational purposes, but that’s it. It’s horrible, and even knowing what’s happening is ALREADY bad enough.

  • Wilibus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Any phrase, request or threat in the from of “do X or be subject to the rules” is inherently flawed.

    Why not skip the asking part and go straight to the enforcing the rules part because they’re, you know; the fucking rules.

  • moitoi@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    The better would have been to ban Twitter. People and politics have to understand you can’t talk with irrational people.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Nationalize it.

      Governments use twitter, a private, for-profit system, far too much for official communications. Governments should run their own communications systems that the public can interface with.

  • grayman@lemmy.world
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    Freedom of speech must stand. If it’s not true, counter it with more speech. Governments shoulder never have the power to block speech nor curate speech.