Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship – Above the Law

(Photo
by
Apu
Gomes/Getty
Images)

Elon
Musk
is
now
calling
for
the
dissolution
of
the
European
Union
because
it
fined
him
$140
million
for
violating
a
law
he
once
said
was
“exactly
aligned”
with
his
vision
for
(what
was
then
called)
Twitter.

And
he’s
doing
it
by
lying
about
what
the
fine
is
actually
for.

The
EU
hit
X
with a
$140
million
fine last
week
for
violating
the
Digital
Services
Act
(DSA).
But
(despite
what
you
may
have
heard)
this
isn’t
some
censorship
overreach
by
Brussels
bureaucrats.
The
violations—which
have been
known
for
over
a
year—have
nothing
to
do
with
content
moderation.
Zero.
Anyone
telling
you
otherwise
is
lying.

The
fine
is
for
three
specific
transparency
failures:
misleading
users
when
Elon changed
verification from
actual
verification
to
“pay
$8
for
a
checkmark,”
maintaining
a
broken
ad
repository,
and
refusing
to
share
required
data
with
researchers.

The
European
Union
has
announced
a
fine
of
$140
million
against
Elon
Musk’s
X,
the
social
media
platform
formerly
known
as
Twitter,
for
several
failures
to
comply
with
rules
governing
large
digital
platforms.
A
European
Commission
spokesperson
said
the
fine
against
X’s
holding
company
was
due
to
the platform’s
misleading
use
of
a
blue
check
mark to
identify
verified
users,
a
poorly
functioning
advertising
repository,
and
a
failure
to
provide
effective
data
access
for
researchers.

Again,
let’s
repeat:
it
has
nothing,
whatsoever,
to
do
with
the
way
X
handles
content
moderation
or
what
speech
it
allows
on
its
platform.
As Daphne
Keller
explains:

Don’t
let
anyone
—
not
even
the
United
States Secretary
of
State —
tell
you
that
the
European
Commission’s €120
million
enforcement against
Elon
Musk’s
X
under
the
Digital
Service
Act
(DSA)
is
about
censorship
or
about
what
speech
users
can
post
on
the
platform.
That
would,
indeed,
be
interesting.
But
this
fine
is
just
the
EU
enforcing
some
normal,
boring
requirements
of
its
law.
Many
of
these
requirements
resemble
existing
US
laws
or
proposals
that
have
garnered
bipartisan
support.

There
are
three
charges
against
X,
which
all
stem
from
a multi-year
investigation that
was
launched
in
2023.
One
is
about
verification
—
X’s
blue
checkmarks
on
user
accounts
—
and
two
are
about
transparency.
These
charges
have
nothing
to
do
with
what
content
is
on
X,
or
what
user
speech
the
platform
should
or
should
not
allow.
There
is
plenty
of
EU
political
disapproval
about
those
things,
for
sure.
But
the
EU
didn’t
choose
to
pick
a
fight
about
them.
Instead,
it
went
after
X
for
violating
much
more
basic,
straightforward
provisions
of
the
DSA.
Those
violations
were
flagrant
enough
that
it
would
be
weird
if
the
EU
hadn’t
issued
a
fine.

Both
Daphne
and
I
have
criticized
attempts
by
EU
officials
to
abuse
the
DSA
in
pursuit
of
censorship.
I directly
called
it
out when
former
EU
Commissioner
Thierry
Breton
clearly
went
way
over
the
line
last
year,
a
move
that
quickly
led
to Breton
losing
his
job.
I’ve
been
highly
critical
of
the
DSA
for
years,
so
if
this
were
actually
an
abuse
of
the
law
for
censorship,
I’d
be
first
in
line
to
call
it
out
and
side
with
Elon
(I’ve
done
it in
other
circumstances
as
well).

But
this
is not that.
This
has
nothing
to
do
with
“content
moderation”
or
“censorship”
in
any
way.

And
yet,
Elon
Musk
is
running
around
pretending
it
is
a
free
speech
issue,
and
his
once-again
friends
in
the
Trump
administration
are
bolstering
that
false
claim.

As
Daphne
pointed
out,
the
EU could investigate
certain
aspects
of
X’s
content
moderation,
and
that could lead
to
serious
questions
about
censorship
and
free
speech.
But they
have
not
done
so.

Honestly,
this
move
is
little
different
than
the
Trump
FTC
taking
action
against
a
Chinese
company
for
violating
COPPA. Which
it
has
done.
Did
we
see
Chinese
politicians
lose
their
minds
over
that?
Did
we
see
the
CEO
of
that
company,
Apitor
Technology,
call
for
dissolving
the
United
States
like
Elon
Musk
is
now
calling
for
dissolving
the
EU?
No.
No,
we
did
not.

But
because
the
Elon
Musks/JD
Vances/Marco
Rubios
of
the
world
can only
think
in
terms
of
memes
and
culture
wars,
they
know
that
if
they
just
insist
that
this
is
about
censorship,
that
the
media
will
cover
it
that
way,
and
the
ignorant
rabble
on
X
will
buy
their
version
of
the
story.

All
this
is
even
more
incredible
because
Elon
Musk
told
the
EU
that he
was
entirely
on
board
with
the
DSA while
he
was
in
the
process
of
buying
Twitter.
Yes,
the
law
he’s
now
claiming
is
censorship
tyranny
requiring
the
dissolution
of
an
entire
governmental
body
is
the
very
same
law
he
declared
was
“exactly
aligned”
with
his
vision
for
the
platform.

At
the
time, we
called
out how
the
EU
was
clearly
playing
Musk,
who
seemed
to
have
no
clue
what
he
was
actually
endorsing.
It
was
obvious
he
hadn’t
read
or
understood
the
DSA.
But
there
he
was,
recording
a
video
claiming
perfect
alignment
with
a
regulatory
framework
he’s
now
treating
as
an
existential
threat
to
free
speech.

So
it’s
pretty
rich
for
him
to
whine
about
it
now.

Of
course,
Musk
isn’t
just
misrepresenting
the
fine.
He’s
responding
with
a
series
of
escalating
tantrums
designed
to
feed
his
false
censorship
narrative.
First,
he
called
for
abolishing
the
entire
EU:

Then
came
the
petty
retaliation.
First, he
canceled
the
EU
Commission’s
X
advertising
account.
X
claimed
it
was
because
they
“exploited”
X’s
ad
platform
by
posting
a
link
that
appeared
to
be
a
video,
but
replies
to
that
tweet
suggested
many,
many
people
said
that
claimed
“exploit”
was
not
an
exploit
at
all,
but
a
tool
that
many
others
had
used.

After
that,
Musk started
threatening
to
punish
EU
Commissioners
directly for
the
fine.
In
doing
so
he
incorrectly
references
the
Streisand
Effect:

As the
coiner of
“The
Streisand
Effect,”
I’d
just
like
to
point
out
that
this
is
not
what
the
Streisand
Effect
means
at
all.

Each
move—calling
to
dissolve
the
EU,
canceling
ads,
threatening
individuals—is
transparently
designed
to
manufacture
a
free
speech
crisis
where
none
exists.
It’s
performance
art
for
an
audience
that
won’t
bother
checking
whether
the
fine
is
actually
about
censorship
(it
isn’t).

And
he’ll
likely
keep
escalating
with
the
help
of
the
Trump
administration.

The
DSA
certainly
has
some
issues,
but
this
fine
is
not
one
of
them.
But
that
hasn’t
stopped
Elon
Musk
and
his
crew
of
political
supporters
from
pretending
that
this
is
some
huge
attack
on
American
free
speech.
It’s
not.
No
more
than
the
FTC’s
fine
against
Apitor
was
an
attack
on
China-based
speech.

But,
of
course,
most
of
the
media
will
continue
to
pretend
this
is
about
free
speech.
They
will
frame
it
that
way
and
for
years
into
the
future
we’ll
hear
false
stories—that
the
media
and
tons
of
other
people
will
simply
accept
as
true—that
the
EU
fined
X
and
Elon
$140
million
for
not
censoring
people.

This
is
the
template
now.
Violate
fairly
modest
regulations,
claim
it’s
censorship,
get
your
political
allies
to
amplify
the
lie,
use
it
to
de-legitimize
any
attempt
at
platform
accountability
for
actively
misleading
users.
It’s
not
about
free
speech.
It
never
was.
It’s
about
securing
freedom
from
accountability
while
wielding
the
power
of
both
private
platforms
and
state
resources
to
crush
anyone
who
tries
to
impose
it.

So
yeah,
anytime
you
hear
someone
claim
the
EU
fined
Musk
for
not
censoring
people,
call
it
out.
Because
the
truth
matters,
even
when
powerful
people
would
prefer
you
didn’t
notice
they’re
lying.

Elon’s
Crying
Censorship
Over
An
EU
Fine
That
Has
Nothing
To
Do
With
Censorship

+263 242 744 677

4 Gunhill Avenue,

Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship – Above the Law