The EU Commission informed X that they are in breach of the Digital Services Act. They outlined the so-called X violations.
- First, X designs and operates its interface for the “verified accounts” with the “Blue checkmark” in a way that does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users. Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a “verified” status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with. There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the “verified account” to deceive users.
- Second, X does not comply with the required transparency on advertising, as it does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository, but instead put in place design features and access barriers that make the repository unfit for its transparency purpose towards users. In particular, the design does not allow for the required supervision and research into emerging risks brought about by the distribution of advertising online.
- Third, X fails to provide access to its public data to researchers in line with the conditions set out in the DSA. In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service. In addition, X’s process to grant eligible researchers access to its application programming interface (API) appears to dissuade researchers from carrying out their research projects or leave them with no other choice than to pay disproportionally high fees.
Violating this Commission brings heavy fines and eventual banishment. The DSA is a group of European elites who get to decide what is “safe” to see on the Internet. They adhere to “hate speech” laws that are not recognized in the United States.
THE SECRET DEAL
Elon Musk said that the EU Commission offered X an illegal secret deal. The deal was that if X quietly censored speech without telling anyone, the EU Commission would not fine them. The X platform was the only platform that did not accept the deal.
Margrethe Vestager is the Executive Vice President of the EU Commission. She wrote on X that in their view, X doesn’t comply with the DSA in key transparency areas. It misleads users, fails to provide adequate ad repository and blocks access to data for researchers. It’s the first time we issue preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act.
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Former State Department cyber expert Michael Benz said the Commission “blocks access to data to researchers.” They’re NOT researchers. They’re censorship activists and political operatives. This has been their plan the whole time. They plan to use the DSA to force X to restaff the censorship squad fired when Elon took over.
Elon Musk told them he looked forward to seeing them in court. “We look forward to a very public battle in court so that the people of Europe can know the truth.”
THE EU COMMISSION’S WEBSITE DESCRIBES THEIR GOALS
According to the EU Commission, The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Market Act (DMA) form a single set of rules. They apply across the whole EU. They have two main goals:
To create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected
To establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) is a new set of regulations that would force major internet platforms to tackle the spread of illegal content and other societal risks on their services in the EU. Violators risk billions of Euros in fines.
BACKGROUND ON THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT
On August 25th and August 26, Sentinel reported that the EU passed the Digital Services Act which applies censorship to any platforms Europeans might see. Nineteen platforms have to conform or be fined a great deal of money or find themselves banned. Google, Facebook, Apple, Instagram, Bing, Google searches, and Twitter are among the mostly US platforms named.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, said it will bring European values to the digital world. The values include censorship. This unelected bureaucrat is authoritarian and claims she is protecting children, society, and democracies. No one would consider this an example of democracy.
The rules include the broad and vague term “hate speech.” The UN regulator, the EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, said the US will obey. She made her comments at the World Economic Forum.
Hate speech can mean disagreeing with mutilating children for “gender-affirming care.” I can mean objecting to forced vaccinations.
The EU speech regulator recently said the US would soon have hate speech laws.
Věra Jourová, the vice president for “values and transparency” at the EU’s executive European Commission, indicated to a fellow panelist at the World Economic Forum that such policies were about to cross the ocean.
“What qualifies as hate speech, as illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S.,” she said, directing her comments to fellow panelist Seth Moulton, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. “I think that we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law; we need the platforms to work with the language simply and to identify such cases.”
Zero Hedge reports that hundreds of unelected EU bureaucrats will decide what constitutes disinformation. They then instruct Big Tech firms to censor it.
They will appoint “trusted flaggers” to decide what people are allowed to see and say. If you think any of these people are democratic, you’d be misinformed. These are authoritarians, and the majority of people in Europe probably don’t want this any more than we do.
So, totalitarians in Europe will take away Americans’ free speech if they communicate in the EU.
X POSTS
The European Commission offered an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.
The other platforms accepted that deal.
did not. https://t.co/4lKsaRsYoA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2024
“blocks access to data to researchers”
They’re NOT researchers. They’re censorship activities & political operatives. This has been their plan the whole time — to use the DSA to force X to restaff the censorship squad fired when Elon took over. https://t.co/cyp8ZmpcOQ
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) July 12, 2024
Be our guest @elonmusk ⚖️
There has never been — and will never be — any “secret deal”. With anyone.
The DSA provides X (and any large platform) with the possibility to offer commitments to settle a case.
To be extra clear: it’s *YOUR* team who asked the Commission to… https://t.co/8Wo7DXdap0
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) July 12, 2024
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