Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter could face a major hurdle: the European Union.

Union rules have been a headache for Silicon Valley for years, and Musk, who seems adamant about free speech, may soon feel the pain.

Hours after Elon Musk tweeted that the bird had been released, referring to the Twitter logo, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton warned that in Europe “the bird will fly in accordance with EU content rules.”

The EU Digital Services Act gives the bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, unprecedented powers to control tech platforms, requiring them to remove illegal content, from terrorist propaganda to advertising for insecure games.

In the spring, Breton had already warned Musk that his approach to free speech must follow this legislation. “I don’t care what he does outside of Europe,” Breton told Bloomberg TV in April. “Do you want to go to Europe? These are our rules.”

The EU has never shied away from controlling the tech giants. Violations of EU data protection rules have already resulted in Twitter being fined €450,000 in 2020, while Amazon, WhatsApp and Google have been fined tens of millions of euros.

Soon, the commission will have even more power to control the tech giants. The Digital Markets Act will force tech companies designated as “gatekeepers” to comply with new antitrust rules. But the biggest challenge for Musk will be its sister law, the DSA (Digital Services Act).

Possible fines

The main purpose of the law is to ensure that companies do a better job of finding and removing illegal content, but what is considered illegal can vary considerably across EU countries. in removing illegal content regardless of the country from which it was posted, or they face fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover. If Twitter repeatedly breaks the rules, the company could be completely banned from operating in the Union.

Content moderation has always been a challenge for technology companies that rely on a combination of algorithms and human oversight to remove content. About 1,500 people currently moderate content on Twitter, compared to about 15,000 on Meta and 10,000 on Google Products, according to a New York University study. Experts say these numbers are not enough to properly monitor social media content.

Musk at one point planned to cut 75 percent of Twitter’s workforce, according to documents seen by the Washington Post. While the company has dropped such high numbers, any plans to strip the company of content moderators will likely make it even harder to track down illegal posts in the EU, let alone the rest of the world.

Source: Bloomberg.