Ho, boy. This is epic.
You KNEW the fascist censorial overlords at the European Commission were probably sneering and salivating like Shelob when a fat orc stumbled drunkenly into the cave opening at the thought of being about to hammer Musk for every video and tweet when the Hamas attack started.
Yesterday, one of the commissioners fired off both a letter and a tweet to Musk, expressing their “concerns” and informing him – in no uncertain terms – of his obligations to rid the platform of what they term “misinformation.” And advise them immediately (if you pronounce that “im-EE-jet-lee,” it sounds more impressive) of his corrective actions.
Thierry Breton says, “We HAVE INDICATIONS…
Following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against 🇮🇱, we have indications of X/Twitter being used to disseminate illegal content & disinformation in the EU.
Urgent letter to @elonmusk on #DSA obligations ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/avMm1LHq54
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) October 10, 2023
What was so beautiful about the terse little demand tweet was Elon’s response.
Yeah. And?
Then he told them to suck a stone.
Sacré bleu!!
Did that reply ever have M’sieur Breton a’ sputtering in haughty Gallic dee-skust and zee outrage. With a leetle pissy French threat thrown in for good measure.
…My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.
Breton’s letter basically said Europeans were such innerwebs dullards they couldn’t possibly figure out the “new changes” in X’s platform to realize what they were doing to root out “misinformation” and bad actors. Or leaving content up in the interest of transparency that the EU might “determine” was harmful.
Afterall, harmful is in the eye of the beholder. Or the authorities.
Europeans, Breton said, are simple, regulated-to-death sheep.
Europe gives Elon Musk 24 hours to respond about Israel-Hamas war misinformation and violence on X, formerly Twitter
…The commissioner said that recent “changes in public interest policies” caused confusion in “many European users.” Breton seemed to be referring to a change that X made over the weekend to its public interest policy that influences whether the company decides to leave certain posts available for everyone to see despite the messages violating policy rules.
“Public media and civil society organisations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games,” the letter said. “This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information.”
Breton said that he wants Musk to ensure that X’s “systems are effective” and “report on the crisis measures taken to my team.”
Zut alors!
Threats seem to mean nothing to this X personage…or his nasty friends.
Really. The dogpile was on, as was the crash course in Freedom of Speech 101.
Yesterday, you claimed X wasn't responding to video game footage falsely presented as Israel-Gaza war footage.
But before you sent your letter, X's Community Notes had already flagged it as video game video.
That means you spread misinformation. https://t.co/vLv6et5XNE pic.twitter.com/i3xwlnKmuo
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) October 11, 2023
Shellenberger was HAWT and just unloads. He even tagged Macron and said “Come get yer boy.”
No wonder the Europeans hate us. We just won’t genuflect.
Ah. I see M’Sieur Greenwald is snarling at the feral EU watchdogs as well.
Good.
GOOD
The fraudulent "disinformation industry" was invented after Brexit and Trump's 2016 win because Western elites concluded online free speech is too dangerous.
This EU study — designed to legally force X to censor more — is supremely fraudulent:https://t.co/dK2JG7VU8X pic.twitter.com/6jOu5PrOQi
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 10, 2023
All that glaring down French noses is so wasted on us backwoods colonial rustics.
We are simply impervious to imperious.
Now, I realize Elon has their hugely restrictive EU laws to follow – which American Democrats and Progressives would dearly love to impose here – but God almighty is it refreshing for them to take a bath in that sweet, unfettered free speech when they forget the medium they’re trying to control has Americans on it.
Again, Musk is something else.
I am glad he’s on our side.
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