Facing accusations of election interference, the European Union on Tuesday tried to walk back censorship threats made by Brussels’ speech code arbiter, Thierry Breton, over Elon Musk’s interview with former President Donald Trump.
Breton appears to have been thrown under the bus as panic broke out after he allegedly acted unilaterally to publish a letter to X owner Elon Musk ahead of his uncensored, live conversation with Donald Trump on Monday evening.
In his letter, the French business executive-turned politician threatened to use all powers in his “toolbox” under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) if the interview broke the EU’s speech restrictions on hate speech, disinformation, or anything deemed harmful to “civic discourse and public security” in Europe.
However, according to a report from POLITICO on Tuesday, a European Commission spokesman said that the threats made in the letter were made without the knowledge of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
The website then cited “four separate EU officials” speaking on condition of anonymity to condemn the censorship czar’s threats to Musk amid accusations that they had represented “election interference” in the United States.
“The EU is not in the business of electoral interference,” one EU official told POLITICO. “DSA implementation is too important to be misused by an attention-seeking politician in search of his next big job.”
The letter from Breton was met with backlash on social media, including from Elon Musk, who shared a Tropic Thunder meme with the caption “Take a big step and literally, fuck your own face!” in reply to the Frenchman.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino accused Breton of “an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US.”
Eurosceptic politicians have also expressed support for Musk in the face of EU censorship demands, including Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who described the letter from Breton as a “surreal and venomous threat” and noted that his League party had voted against the EU’s DSA speech restrictions.
“Enough with absurd rules that suffocate democracy, long live freedom of thought! We always defended it, you have all our support, go ahead!” the populist Italian proclaimed.
Amid establishment demands for fresh censorship of social media over the riots in the UK, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss also backed Musk, saying on Tuesday: “I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe.
“We can’t be truly free without free speech. Good for Elon Musk and X for standing up to these bullies.”
Despite the apparent backtracking of Breton’s letter by Brussels, Musk’s X platform is still facing sanction in the EU under the DSA over the alleged spread of so-called disinformation. Large social media firms face fines of up to six per cent of their global revenue or even potential suspension if found guilty of violating the censorship codes.
Listen to the interview below:
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