Elon Musk set the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons yesterday when he alleged via tweet:
‘The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.’
It was written in reply to a tweet by Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission EU Fit for Digital Age and Commissioner for Competition.
They wrote:
‘In our 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 Service Act.’
For those who actually use social media, rather than pick apart its database, X (formally Twitter) is easily the most transparent and responsive platform on the market. Competitors such as Facebook are opaque creations that engage with customers via AI bots inspired by Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Trust me, I am still traumatised from the last experience with Facebook where they all-but destroyed The Spectator Australia account after an AI bot translated the text on a Hamas headband (in a stock image) and accused us of spreading hate speech. At least there are humans at X and a boss who sorts out accidental censorship failings himself.
When it comes to the allegations and claims made by the European Commission, the community notes section under the post points out many failings and apparent mistakes.
The bigger and more important question is, do we really want the European Commission dictating the terms of engagement to X? It seems no more or less absurd than Australia’s eSafety Commissioner attempting to extend her censorial demands across the globe.
In response to the European Commission’s post, Elon Musk replied: ‘The DSA IS misinformation.’
Commentator Michael Shellenberger added, (to the Commission), ‘You are a totalitarian menace.’
Shellenberger had a more involved discussion about the European Commissioner Thierry Breton and the AI Pact in late 2023. In particular, Shellenberger took issue with Mr Breton’s comment, ‘I am the enforcer. I represent the law, which is the will of the state and the people.’
European Commissioner @ThierryBreton is threatening to censor users on Twitter & other platforms. “I am the enforcer,” he says. “I represent the law, which is the will of the state and the people.” In truth, he is an unelected bureaucrat hell-bent on silencing disfavored voices. https://t.co/GORK3q55Xs
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) June 2, 2023
For context, at the same time as that comment was made, Mr Breton was discussing the voluntary misinformation code which, like all things voluntary, was about to be made mandatory.
‘It’s a voluntary basis, so we don’t force anyone to join the code of practice on disinformation, Breton said. ‘I just reminded (Musk and Twitter) that by August 25, it will become a legal obligation to fight disinformation.’
Mr Breton tweeted in an attempt to clarify the reason the Commission was so cross with Elon Musk:
‘Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information. Now with X, our preliminary view is that:
They deceive users.
They infringe #DSA
X has now the right of defence – but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines and require significant changes.’
Back in the day, #BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information?
Now with X, our preliminary view is that:
They deceive users
They infrige #DSA
X has now the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes. pic.twitter.com/M9tGA5pYQr
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) July 12, 2024
This is a truly bizarre position to hold. Blue checks (or ticks) are not an industry standard or recognised ‘trust’ symbol dished out by some all-powerful global government – they are an in-house Twitter quirk developed by the platform.
Originally these were given out to special verified users, but under old Twitter management, the verification was a tedious system effectively closed off to everyone except friends of the Twitter management. By that I mean, ‘Woke’ friends. The blue tick turned into a joke, a symbol, if you will, of acceptance into The Club. Toward the end of that management regime, it didn’t matter how famous, trusted, or official you were – the blue tick process was a mates-rates affair.
Elon Musk decided to reform the blue tick process after feedback from users and made the blue tick a symbol of paid membership. Twitter makes this very obvious. There are other coloured ticks – yellow and silver – to represent news organisations and trusted accounts.
If the European Commission had clicked on the little blue tick next to their own name, they would have found a description that begins:
The blue checkmark means that the account has an active subscription to X Premium and meets our eligibility requirements … we began winding down our legacy Verification program and accounts that were verified under the previous criteria (active, notable, and authentic) will not retain a blue checkmark unless they are subscribed to X Premium.
And, to be clear, a blue tick never meant ‘trustworthy’ – not even under the former management. It simply meant ‘famous’. It was a way of combating accounts pretending to be celebrities. What those celebrities said was not ‘guaranteed to be truthful’ or anything of the sort.
If the Commission is trying to hinge their argument of transparency on blue ticks, they are transparently incompetent…
As Billboard Chris wrote on Twitter: ‘You think you can tell a privately owned business how to hand out blue checkmarks? Have you totally lost your mind? Mets [Meta] also verifies users. Are you targeting them?’
Elon Musk is having none of it. He replied: ‘We look forward to the very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth.’
Mr Breton replied:
‘Be our guest, Elon Musk.
There has never been – and never will 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 explain the process for settlement and to clarify our concerns.
We did it in line with established regulatory procedures. Up to you to decide whether to offer commitments or not. That is how the rule of law procedures work.
See you (in court or not).’
It is hard not to hear the soundtrack of a whinging toddler.
In Summary, while Europe is burning to the ground and in danger of being taken over by communists, socialists, greens, and radical religious groups – the European Commission is busy trying to shut people up on Twitter and complaining about a symbol that indicates a paid account.
At least Twitter indicates how an account was formed.
The European Commission is largely an unelected bureaucracy of busy-bodies obsessed with cleaning up everything except their own mess.
If Elon Musk was put in charge of Europe, it’d be in a much better state than under the watch of the Commission. As for Twitter, it has being cultivating a new generation of freelance journalists operating outside the petty censorship and dictatorial whims of legacy media houses.
Political leaders and sprawling bureaucracies have no way to shut these Twitter journalists up – or even quiet the general noise of uncensored public opinion – almost all of it criticising the catastrophic failures of those trying to do the censoring.
It’s no wonder Elon Musk finds himself under constant attack.
Shortly after squashing the censorial delusions of the Commission, Elon Musk was posting rocket launches and Tesla Truck videos.
One is colonising space. The other is busy spreading digital barbed wire over the ground to cut and tear at the peasants.
The funny thing is, Elon Musk could delete the entire European bureaucracy, its Commission, and all of its members from Twitter in a second. There is no law that says he has to platform them. Instead, he is doing something even more damaging – he’s letting them speak.