A leading EU parliamentarian has warned Elon Musk that X could be shut down entirely in the European Union if it fails to censor so-called “disinformation and hate speech”.
Sandro Gozi, an Italian Member of the European Parliament who serves as the Secretary-General for the European Democratic Party and in the leadership of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew Europe group in Strasbourg, issued another threat of censorship towards Elon Musk and X, warning of a potential outright ban of the platform if it does not abide by the speech directives in the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
Speaking to the Italian paper La Repubblica on Monday, the MEP said: “The former Twitter must also comply with the DSA directive on disinformation and hate speech.”
“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 a total dismantling of the platform in the territory of the Union,” Gozi added.
The warning from the leading EU parliamentarian came just a week after Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s censorship czar, wrote an open letter to Musk, demanding that the X boss censor his live interview with former President Donald Trump.
In his letter, the former tech executive turned Eurocrat threatened to use all the powers in his “toolbox” to punish X if the Trump interview violated EU restrictions on disinformation, hate speech, or in any way served to harm “civic discourse and public security” in the bloc. Under the DSA, EU regulators, led by Breton, have the power to impose fines of up to six per cent of the global turnover of large internet firms. The draconian legislation also empowers Brussels to potentially ban platforms throughout the EU.
Breton’s intervention drew pushback from other power players within Brussels as the EU faced accusations of “election interference” in the United States by demanding censorship of the Republican nominee for president. The following day, after Breton’s letter, a spokesman for the European Commission said that it was sent without the knowledge of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. Other unnamed EU sources slammed Breton for being “attention-seeking” and for engaging in “electoral interference.”
With the intervention of Gozi on Monday, it appears that Breton is not without allies in the push to launch a censorship campaign against Elon Musk and X.
However, following his threat to ban X, Gozi travelled to Chicago to attend the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and to support the Kamala Harris campaign, perhaps demonstrating his partisan reasons for seeking to censor the free speech-oriented social media platform.
“US elections will also have a huge impact in Europe. For years, as European Democrats, we have been committed to strengthening our ties with American Democrats. With our participation in Chicago, we want to show our support for Kamala Harris and her fight for civil rights, for the middle class, and against Trump’s extremism,” Gozi said.