Twitter’s new owner and world’s richest person Elon Musk will soon receive an invite to the European Parliament, according to POLITICO.
Two liberal lawmakers requested European Parliament President Roberta Metsola invite Musk. In a closed-door meeting on Thursday, Metsola told top EU lawmakers that she would invite Musk soon.
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
“There are sound reasons to suggest that the standards applied by Twitter until now, may be weakened, at a time when the fight against election interference, misinformation and hate speech is more important than ever,” the two Renew (a liberal political party) MEPs, Sophie in ‘t Veld (Dutch) and Dita Charanzová (Czech), wrote to Metsola last week.
The lawmakers want Musk to go to Brussels to discuss his plans for the company and to brief him on EU laws governing social media.
The president of the European Parliament does not have the power to summon a company executive. Musk does not have to go if he receives the invite. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg testified in Brussels in 2018, in a hearing that was relatively unfruitful.
Europe has some of the strictest privacy and content moderation laws. The recently passed Digital Service Act (DSA), which aims to force social media companies to police harmful content, will come into effect mid-next year.