Privacy regulators in the European Union are keeping a close eye on Musk because of his erratic piloting of the bird site.
The Irish Data Protection Commission told us it is reviewing the matter after a report by Platformer suggested that Musk is planning to force users to accept personalized advertising unless they pay for a subscription service that will include an opt out for ads.
This adds to a growing pile of data protection concerns piling up on its desk, such as Musk giving access to Twitter systems to non-staff reporters.
Twitter’s lead EU watchdog for data protection has fresh questions for Musk
Tracking and profiling users to target them with ads is one of the things that needs a valid legal basis.
One of the legal bases that can be done is consent, but you can't force users to give it. EU regulators don't like forcing users to pay or be tracked.
Contractual necessity is a legal base that can be used. This is the legal basis that Facebook-owner Meta uses to force personalized ads on users of its social networking services.
The European Data Protection Board recently ruled against Musk in his attempt to force Europeans to pay him not to profile them for ad targeting.
Meta’s behavioral ads will finally face GDPR privacy reckoning in January
LI is a legal basis that exists in theGDPR. The sad trombone for Musk is that TikTok was forced to abandon a planned switch of legal basis for its personalized ads after warnings from Italy.
The DPC was TikTok's lead supervisor for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The EU's ePrivacy Directive, which governs online tracking, is likely to come into play if Twitter tries to force tracking ads on users. LI won't be flying for tracking ads.
Musk is not a fan of regulators and the ePrivacy Directive does not have a one-stop-shop mechanism to streamline regulatory oversight. If he tries to force tracking ads on EU users, he will open the company up to enforcement by privacy watchdogs across the bloc, from Italy to France, and on through as many of the 27 EU Member States that have a desire for enforcement.
Two years ago, the French privacy watchdog, the CNIL, hit the adtech giant with a further $170 million penalty after it dropped tracking cookies without consent. Amazon and Facebook have been hit with multimillion dollar fines for privacy breeches. There is no reason to think the French wouldn't be interested in a Muskian forced- tracking-ads adventure.
In some EU Member States, news media websites put up paywalls that give users a choice between paying for access to their content or not, but with the proviso that they agree to it.
Their approach is unpopular with data protection experts. There is a clear difference between pay-or-be-tracked-gating of journalism and Musk's plans to force ads on unwilling Europeans.
It doesn't look like the pay-me-or-else paywall would be easy to implement.
A really key difference is that news media are asking you to pay for content they have produced at a cost. Funding good journalism is important. EM is flapping around trying to monetise content and engagement created by others.
— Daragh O Brien mastodon.ie/@CastlebridgeChief (@CBridge_Chief) December 14, 2022
What penalties might Musk face if he tries to force ads on Europeans?
The cost of breaking the law can go up to 4% of global annual turnover, so on the surface it may seem like it's more expensive than it is. Even if the bill may take years to arrive, the fines against tech giants have gotten bigger in recent years. One-off incidents like a security slip up are more likely to invite larger fines.
EU regulators can impose sanctions that can be as high as a hundred million dollars per violation if they choose to do so.
One-stop-shop mechanisms that funnel cross-border complaints through a single lead regulator are not slowing down eprivacy enforcement. If Musk goes ahead with forced tracking despite the lack of a legal path for such processing, fines could arrive quickly.
EU regulators have the ability to issue corrective orders against violators. Failure to comply with such orders will lead to further sanctions. If Musk doesn't correct course he will be in a world of regulatory pain.
There are more regulatory troubles in the region.
The EU's new Digital Services Act (DSA), the bloc's rebooted Internet rulebook, which concerns itself with content governance issues, will loom on the horizon.
The European Commission will be in charge of compliance with the DSA. A stress test of its approach at its Dublin headquarters will be carried out early next year, after it warned last month of the need to have enough resources in place. The DSA watch has already been put on the social networking site.
It remains to be seen if the Commission will classify the social networking site as a so-called VLOP, meaning it would take on the burden of regulating Musk's erratic rule itself. He is inviting that increased level of EU scrutiny by playing so loose with existing governance and compliance structures. Based on an assessment of the platform's size alone, the Commission appears to be more likely to regulate DSA compliance than it should. Musk ripped up governance structures and drove out compliance experts.
The DSA gives regulators the power to ban services if they fail to correct governance, as well as giving them the ability to penalize services up to 6% of global turnover.
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