“We Have Rules”, The EU Reminds Elon Musk Who Plans To Make Twitter A Platform For “Free Speech”

The European Union’s Commissioner for Internal Markets, Thiery Breton

Elon Musk’s plan for Twitter is to privatize the company and make it a platform that upholds free speech but this doesn’t sit well with certain groups of people and now the EU.

Elon Musk’s bid to acquire Twitter for $44 billion got accepted on Monday bringing the billionaire steps closer to achieving his goal of “changing” Twitter. Various human rights groups as well as individuals are against the idea of Elon Musk taking over Twitter. Their fear lies in the fact that Twitter could lose the very policies protecting people and their rights on which the platform is built. “The last thing we need is a Twitter that willfully turns a blind eye to violent and abusive speech against users, particularly those most disproportionately impacted, including women, non-binary persons, and others,” Michael Kleinman, the director of technology and human rights at Amnesty International USA said on Monday.

“Regardless of who owns Twitter, the company has human rights responsibilities to respect the rights of people around the world who rely on the platform. Changes to its policies, features, and algorithms, big and small, can have disproportionate and sometimes devastating impacts, including offline violence. Freedom of expression is not an absolute right, which is why Twitter needs to invest in efforts to keep its most vulnerable users safe on the platform,” Deborah Brown, a digital rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, wrote in an email to Reuters.

On Tuesday, the European Union’s Commissioner for Internal Markets, Thiery Breton spoke on Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. While he said that the world’s richest man was free to do as he please with Twitter, he warned that the EU had strict rules for online platforms to tackle content deemed as illegal.

“It will be up to Twitter to adapt themselves … to our rules. I think Elon Musk knows Europe very well. He knows very well that we have some rules for the automotive industry … and he understands that. So in Europe, in order to protect freedom of speech and to protect individuals, any companies will have to fulfill this obligation,” he said.

“Remember, the information space does not belong to any private company. The information space is part of our responsibility as politicians. Like territorial space … airspace, our digital space is our responsibility to organize,” he added.

Meanwhile, there have been talks that suspended accounts such as Donald Trump’s could be allowed to become active once again on Twitter. The former US President has, however, come out to say that he’s not returning to Twitter even if his account gets reinstated.