Elon Musk mulling removing X from Europe over EU's regulations

MOSCOW, Oct 19: US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is considering removing his social networking service X (formerly known as Twitter) from Europe amid the European Union's investigation into compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA), Sputnik quoted Business Insider report Wednesday.

Musk is increasingly frustrated with having to comply with the EU's regulation, a source told the media, adding that the entrepreneur has discussed the removal of the X application's availability in the region or blocking users in the EU from accessing the app - the way Meta (banned in Russia for extremism) is blocking users in Europe from accessing its Treads app.

Musk has met with the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, at least twice this year about what X needs to do to comply with the regulations, but he has lost patience with the situation, the magazine cited a source.

In August, the EU adopted the DSA - a set of regulations aimed at creating a safer digital space across the EU, which requires online platforms to have effective and transparent systems for content moderation and remove false, misleading, or harmful information.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Commission published a set of recommendations for member states to "coordinate their response to the spread and amplification of illegal content, such as terrorist content or unlawful hate speech", to ensure compliance by online platforms with the DSA and enable its prompt enforcement.

Breton said last week that the European Commission had sent X a formal request for information, which he called "a first step in our investigation to determine compliance with the DSA".

Last week, Must and Breton had a spat on X after the commissioner said he had sent a letter to Musk requesting that he reply within 24 hours to allegations that X is spreading illegal content and disinformation about the recent attacks of Palestinian movement Hamas on Israel.

Breton informed Musk that if an investigation is launched into the presence of prohibited materials on X, penalties may be imposed up to six percent of the company's global revenue under the EU laws.

Musk then responded, asking Breton to provide a list of violations to let the public see them and underscored that the social media platform is an open source and is transparent.

(BERNAMA)