A lot of people in America don't understand the weird internal workings of the European Union; honestly it would probably be fair to say that a lot of people in Europe don't fully understand the internal workings of the European Union. The European Union is sort of like the US Federal Government, but also sort of not like the US Federal government, overseen by a group of commissioners in Brussels at the European Commission who often aren't actually elected but rather are appointed by the heads of members states or other EU Commissioners themselves... it's all very confusing and, from an American standpoint at least, it often seems like these people somehow simultaneously have little power over their member states and what goes on in them and absolute power over them depending on the member state and the issue.
All of this as a preamble to say that what exactly is entailed in the filing announced by Thierry Breton, the French businessman and current Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union of a 'formal infringement proceeding' against Twitter is a bit up in the air from a layman's perspective.
Today we open formal infringement proceedings against @X :
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) December 18, 2023
⚠️ Suspected breach of obligations to counter #IllegalContent and #Disinformation
⚠️ Suspected breach of #Transparency obligations
⚠️ Suspected #DeceptiveDesign of user interface#DSA pic.twitter.com/NxKIif603k
Whatever this means, it's clear that Elon Musk isn't pleased with his apparently being singled out in this fashion and isn't afraid to let them know about it.
Are you taking action against other social media?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2023
Because if you have those issues with this platform, and none are perfect, the others are much worse.
Exactly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2023
But for the most part the question on everyone's lips is... who exactly are you?
Never heard of you.
— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) December 18, 2023
Who are you?
Who elected you? You don’t own X and you aren’t Elon’s boss.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 18, 2023
You guys are the absolute worst.
— jjinUK64 (@JjinUk64) December 18, 2023
Unelected eurocrats trying to censor and control what people can see & say.
Appalling.
That pretty much sums it up, yeah.
As an European, how do I vote to fire you?
— bitcoincashautist -- pe/acc (@bchautist) December 18, 2023
Never in history have those who advocated or pushed censorship been ‘on the right side of history’.
— Vincent Vandeputte (@VincentVandep8) December 18, 2023
Not one European citizen voted for you.
All I can say to this is that I feel ashamed to be a European citizen.
The EU is supposed to be a union for peace and a single free market, for a strong economy and the creation of wealth for Europeans.
— Marc Guyon (@MarcGuyon) December 18, 2023
That’s all.
Not restrictions of freedom of speech, with useless regulations and expensive technocrat jobs funded by the EU taxpayer.
To say that the European Union has seen a decent bit of mission drift would, it often seems, be an understatement.
We all know this is because he's allowing free speech and not silencing the people.
— Mostly Peaceful Cat (@MaxPaxCat) December 18, 2023
If you don’t see how absolutely wrong it it’s that states want to determine what disinformation is, you’re part of the problem.
— Fab 🦊🧡 (@fabthefoxx) December 18, 2023
announcing your formal infringement proceedings against x on x. truly the everything app.
— Samantha A (@Samantha1989TV) December 18, 2023
It doesn't lack for irony, it's true.
It remains to be seen what exactly this will entail as it plays out. One of the purposes of the people serving on the European Commission has always been a clear need to justify their position by making a big splash every once in a while, so it's fully possible that this is something along those lines. But these things can be costly as well... Earlier this year the EU lobbed a 1.3 billion euro fine on Facebook for practices it considered problematic, so that's a possibility for the future as well. How Musk would handle such a decision is an open question, the answer to which we'll have to watch for as this all progresses.
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