EU Commissioner Thierry Breton shared words with X Corp. owner Elon Musk yesterday, reminding him that Musk and X have a responsibility to adhere to the EU’s Digital Services Act, or DSA.
Breton’s strongly worded missive to Musk sent yesterday was sent in response to what he called the “risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in EU in connection with events with major audiences around the world.” The letter was also a response to Musk’s livestreamed interview with presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The gist of the message was along the lines of the adage popularized by Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Breton reminded Musk that X has 300 million users and about a third of them are in the EU, and Musk ought to be careful not to “generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security.”
“As you know, formal proceedings are already ongoing with X with the DSA, notably in the aeras linked to the dissemination of illegal content and the effectiveness of the measures taken to combat misinformation,” Breton wrote. Content that incites “violence, hate, and racism,” he said, isn’t acceptable. He also mentioned the recent protests and riots in the U.K., something that saw Musk butting heads with the British government.
Unsurprisingly, Musk, a self-described if inconsistent “free speech absolutist,” fired back. “To be honest, I really wanted to respond with this Tropic Thunder meme,” he wrote to his 200 million followers on X, posting an image from the 2008 movie. “But I would NEVER do something so rude & irresponsible!” The image featured the character in the movie saying, “Take a big step back and literally fuck your own face.”
Though there’s certainly animus toward Musk online from various sectors of the public and the EU itself, it seems Breton’s letter for many overstepped the mark. It was soon discovered that Breton hadn’t informed the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen about the letter, while other officials in the EU saidit came as a surprise to them and they did not want to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. Many people online were also miffed about what seemed to them European interference from what looked like a threat from a European Big Brother that doesn’t have jurisdiction in the U.S.
X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino called Breton’s letter “an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the U.S.” Amusingly, an X user sent a letter back to Bretton: the Declaration of Independence. American journalist Michael Shellenberger shared stronger words, calling Breton a “totalitarian menace” and a “tyrant.”