Elon Musk’s public spat with the EU this week has reignited debate about regulation of social media companies such as X and TikTok, following last week’s disinformation-fuelled rioting in the UK.
Ahead of the tech billionaire’s online interview with Donald Trump on Monday, EU commissioner Thierry Breton told Musk he was “compelled to remind” the Tesla boss of his “due diligence obligations” under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The DSA brought the bloc powers to enforce rules around disinformation and advertising, including penalties that can run from large fines to suspending access to online services across the region.
However, Breton’s intervention was quickly disowned by the European Commission, which said the “timing and the wording of the letter were neither co-ordinated or agreed” with fellow commissioners.
While Europe has taken a tougher approach to regulating digital platforms than the US, critics say that even the latest UK and EU rules designed to tame social media platforms do not go far enough to restrain owners such as Musk. Others, meanwhile, argue that the European rules already constrain freedom of speech and that hurling abuse online is different to throwing bricks in a riot.
What do you think — should governments do more to regulate social media? Tell us your views by voting in our poll or commenting below the line.
Content Disclaimer and Copyright Notice
Content Disclaimer
The content provided on this website is sourced from various RSS feeds and other publicly available sources. We strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information, and we always provide source links to the original content. However, we are not responsible for the content’s accuracy or any changes made to the original sources after the information is aggregated on our site.
Fair Use and Copyright Notice
This website may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
