Earlier today, David wrote about the letter which EU Commissioner Thierry Breton sent to Elon Musk in advance of Musk's interview with Donald Trump.

With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA

As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in 🇪🇺 in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk

📧⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024

Breton makes some noise about the need to protect free speech but his real interest is in forcing Musk to mitigate "harmful content" which he further defines as "detrimental effects on civic discourse." 

The fact that this was dropped one day before Musk's interview with Trump is not coincidental. Breton is quite intentionally trying to interfere with free speech in this country (and others). He writes, "we are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political - or societal - events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections."

Breton goes on to mention that X is already under investigation for possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and that anything Musk says or does "may be relevant." In other words, we will find you guilty of violations if Trump says something we don't like.

There were a number of great responses to Breton, including this one.

What Breton is doing is flagrantly illegal. He is violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the EU Constitution, and the French Constitution. US, EU, and other lawmakers around the world should demand Breton be fired and investigated for his attack on freedom. https://t.co/RS55vQXgbZ

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) July 12, 2024

And this one:

Who are you? An escapee from the fallen Soviet Union? What will you do next? Bring back the Gulag?
People ask me: who is subverting our democracies? Well, here is Mr. Breton, in his own words.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) August 12, 2024

But it's pretty hard to top this response.

Our letter was better. pic.twitter.com/jeEZ8FYAZV

— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) August 12, 2024

Elon Musk, the target of the letter, issued a response which very much in that same spirit.

To be honest, I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme, but I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible! https://t.co/jL0GDW5QUx pic.twitter.com/XhUxCSGFNP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2024

The backlash was fairly intense and, unfortunately for Mr. Breton, it seems his superiors, who had not been notified in advance about his letter, were not pleased and distanced themselves from his action.

On Tuesday the European Commission denied that Breton had approval from its president Ursula von der Leyen to send the letter.

“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the [commissioners],” it said.

Politico has more including some criticism of Breton by an unnamed EU official.

Four separate EU officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Breton’s warning to Musk had surprised many within the Commission. The bloc’s enforcers were still investigating the platform for potential wrongdoing and the EU did not want to be seen as potentially interfering in the U.S. presidential election. 

“The EU is not in the business of electoral interference,” said one of those officials. “DSA implementation is too important to be misused by an attention-seeking politician in search of his next big job.”

A Trump campaign spokesman also commented on the letter saying, "The European Union should mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the US presidential election." For his part, Breton did get the message but is choosing not to respond.

An EU official said that Breton had “taken note” of Musk’s reply but was still expecting a more formal response.

“We don’t have to comment or react whenever there is a tweet, whether it is a bonjour or a reference to a movie,” the official said.

Personally, I'd like to have a president who would tell Europe that any interference in our election would be grounds for revisiting our trade agreements or worse, but I doubt we'll hear anything from Kamala Harris or that other guy who is supposedly president. I haven't seen him do much of anything in a few weeks. What was his name again?