European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton told Twitter CEO Elon Musk that the platform has to meet its commitment to comply with EU rules in the next few months. There are concerns from the EU that changes made since the billionaire took over might derail the platform’s compliance with new social media censorship rules in the EU.
Two months ago, Breton and Musk held a video call where the EU commissioner stressed that there was much work to be done for the platform to comply with the rules. Breton was referring to the Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into effect in November. Platforms have until September 1, 2023, to fully comply with the censorship rules or face fines equivalent to 6% of their global turnover.
In a video call on January 31, Breton told Musk, “I take note of the path that Twitter is committed to take in Europe to comply with DSA rules. The next few months will be crucial to transform commitments into reality.”
“We need to see progress towards full compliance with the DSA. My team will follow closely the work by Twitter and by all other online platforms,” Breton added.
The commissioner added that he would be observing the tools and resources that Twitter is allocating toward compliance with the DSA in Europe and European languages.
Breton also reminded Musk about Twitter’s commitment to the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation. Signatories of the code are supposed to release reports next week.
In a tweet, Musk said the meeting with Breton was good and that the DSA’s transparency, accurate information, and accountability goals are aligned with Twitter’s. In the next few weeks, Twitter will conduct a stress test.
