While the world continues to wonder what will happen to free speech, the European Union has won a PR victory in the long game of platform regulation.
Regulation of online speech was one of the topics discussed by the EU internal market commissioner during his visit to the gigafactory of Musk.
The Digital Services Act (DSA), which will come into force across the bloc in the coming years, is intended to harmonize content governance rules and dialling for larger platforms. Penalties for violating the regulation can be as high as 6 percent of global annual turnover.
I think the regulation is in line with my thinking, Musk said.
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Musk said in the brief Q&A with Breton that it had been a great discussion. I think we are very much alike. We want to do anything that our companies can do to benefit Europe. That's what I'm saying.
On social media, they had a constructive exchange on the impact of the EU Digital Services Act on online platforms in areas such as freedom of speech, or user responsibility.
He also posted a picture of the two of them together.
Great meeting! We are very much on the same page.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022
Setting aside the awkward body language between Musk and Breton, it remains to be seen whether the former will have the last laugh or not.
Musk suggested his rule of thumb for moderation on the social media platform will be cleaved to local laws that require the removal of illegal speech.
He will happily open the floodgates to toxic abuse and conspiracy theories.
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
Europe's grand plan for modernizing platform rules, meanwhile, sidesteps this area of legal but harmful speech in favor of fixing hard-and-fast rules to harmonize swift takedowns of strictly illegal stuff.
Musk came away from the meeting with the EU commissioner with the belief that their approaches align, assuming that the rules focus on illegal speech.
Confirmation bias is a drug.
EU lawmakers have a number of mechanisms in the pipe to tackle fuzzier content problems such as misinformation, and to set transparency rules around political ads. It is possible that Musk hasn't fully grasped all the ways the bloc intends to pressure platform providers not to spread other types of toxic and harmful content.
One thing is certain: Musk will get many more requests for meetings from lawmakers at home and abroad if he succeeds in buying Twitter. If he pulls out the speech, he will find a lot of requests turning into hard and fast demands.
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