Running Out Of Time – Can Musk Still Save Himself?

(DailyVantage.com) – The microblogging platform Twitter has been the subject of much political controversy within the last few years, and now, the platform is reportedly running out of time to comply with new digital services rules in the European Union or lose access to the bloc, One America News Network reported.

New rules imposed by the European Digital Services Act have put Twitter in the political spotlight. The European Digital Services Act is legislation passed in the European Union in 2020 that regulates the digital marketplace, including information technology and communication services. The bill will go into full effect in August 2023, Politico reported. The Twitter platform will reportedly face a ban in the EU if the company’s owner Elon Musk, a vocal advocate of free speech, fails to impose the guidelines of European anti-disinformation laws on the platform, Deadline reported. The threat of the ban came from the French Digital Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Barrot’s ban warning reportedly followed Twitter’s decision to withdraw from a voluntary rulebook that included anti-disinformation guidelines for big tech companies, including Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft, Deadline reported.

Since Twitter chose to leave the Code of Conduct voluntary rulebook, it has received political criticism, as commentators express skepticism that Twitter could “hide” from the EU’s rules. French business executive and European Union Internal Market Commission Thierry Breton stated that Twitter could “run” but “could not hide” from the rules for long. As of August 25, Thierry argued in a tweet posted on May 26, “fighting disinformation” would be a legal requirement for doing digital business in the European Union.

Musk pulled Twitter from disinformation rules and then reportedly “trolled” the mainstream with “alt-right memes” and “dog whistles,” Business Insider reported. The act of withdrawal was analyzed as a sign that Musk may be considering ending European business operations altogether. A European Union official told Euractiv news that they had anticipated Musk’s actions and that it was “only a matter of time,” before he withdrew from the voluntary agreement.