The European Union will ban Elon Musk’s X if it fails to censor the platform, one of the bloc’s top Liberal MEPs has claimed.
Sandro Gozi, a senior EU representative for Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition, has insisted that the US platform must implement Digital Services Act (DSA) so-called “hate speech” controls if it wants to continue operating within the bloc.
Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Gozi said on August 19 that X “must respect the DSA directive on disinformation and incitement to hatred” or face prohibition.
“If Elon Musk does not comply with European rules on digital services, the EU Commission will ask continental operators to block X or, in the most extreme case, will impose the total dismantling of the platform in the territory of the Union,” the senior Renew Europe MEP stated.
He went on to justify speech controls as being necessary to curtail political violence as well as the rise of the so-called “extreme right.”
“Online violence often leads to offline violence,” he wrote.
“The extreme right hides its violence behind freedom of expression. Platforms must moderate hateful content.”
Gozi’s comments follow the publication of an open letter by EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton ordering Musk to censor an online conversation he recently had with US presidential candidate Donald Trump or face possible penalties under the DSA.
Breton was later reprimanded by US politicians over the threat, with the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee issuing a letter recently ordering the Eurocrat to cease what it saw as the bloc’s interference in US politics.
The European Union must not “interfere in US politics” via its attempts to censor the internet, a letter signed by a senior Republican politician has warned. https://t.co/gfEX7SBh4j
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 19, 2024
