The IT Nerd

In 2018 Twitter joined a list of tech companies, social media services, and other organizations to abide by a voluntary Code of Practice on Disinformation. However as of Friday, Twitter has decided to opt out of this. TechCrunch has the details:

In a tweet last night — which confirmed earlier reports of Twitter’s impending exit from the EU Code— Breton issued the social media platform with a blunt warning: Telling Twitter it cannot hide from incoming legal liability in this area.

“Twitter leaves EU voluntary Code of Practice against disinformation. But obligations remain. You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton wrote — a reference to obligations the platform is legally required to comply with as a so-called very large online platform (VLOP) under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

“Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be legal obligation under #DSA as of August 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement.”

The pan-EU law, which entered into force back in November, requires VLOPs like Twitter to assess and mitigate systemic risks to civic discourse and electoral processes, such as disinformation.

The deadline for VLOPs’ compliance with obligations in the DSA is three months from now.

So, this is going to get interesting in a hurry. If Elon Musk really wants to pick this fight, he may be fined 6% of annual turnover for every violation. And that’s cash that he doesn’t have. On top of that the EU could block Twitter outright. And that would cost him even more money. So why would he do this? It truly makes zero sense. But nothing that Elon does makes sense as he seems from those of us watching from the outside to be a really irrational person. All I know is that those who pick fights with the EU lose way more often than they win. And given Elon’s recent track record, he should be prepared to be on the losing end of this.

This entry was posted on May 29, 2023 at 8:06 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.