Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe’s new social media rules.

Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc’s content rules.

If Musk fails to comply, the EU’s rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.

Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X’s own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    arrow-down
    16
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    If that is Net Revenue, I have some bad news for the EU. 🤣🤣🤣

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think you’re thinking of profits, which is revenue minus costs.

      EU fines are a percentage of global revenue, which means all the money you make in any way, anywhere in the world, before subtracting any bullshit.

      • JohnEdwa@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Which was $4.4 billion in 2022 and is estimated to be roughly $3 billion for 2023, so the maximum fine would be 180-264 million depending on which figure is used.
        For comparison, the net loss (not profit) for 2022 for twitter was 270 million.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          Per occasion, and the Commission can also create a moderation enforcement team specifically for Twitter, basically forcing Twitter to have moderation, and put the cost of said moderation on Twitter, as charges separate to the fine.

        • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Think your stats are off? You can see a post in my history with more EU focused math. If yours is better let me know and I’ll update ;)

    • detalferous@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      The “brilliance” of Elon’s plan: he is impervious to EU fines because he doesn’t make any money.

    • ???@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      If that is gross revenue, I have bad news for the EU. “X” is, IIRC, operating in the red since Musk bought it.