EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Thierry Breton
Member of the Commission
Brussels, 10 October 2023
Dear Mr Musk,
Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.
Let me remind you that the Digital Services Act sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation.
First, you need to be very transparent and clear on what content is permitted under your terms and consistently and diligently enforce your own policies. This is particularly relevant when it comes to violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform. Your latest changes in public interest policies that occurred over night left many European users uncertain.
Second, when you receive notices of illegal content in the EU, you must be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content when warranted. We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities.
Third, you need have in place proportionate and effective mitigation measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse stemming from disinformation. Public media and civil society organisations widely report instances of fake and manipulated images and facts circulating on your platform in the EU, such as repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games. This appears to be manifestly false or misleading information.
I therefore invite you to urgently ensure that your systems are effective, and report on the crisis measures taken to my team.
Given the urgency, I also expect you to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement authorities and Europol, and ensure that you respond promptly to their requests.
Moreover, on a number of other issues of DSA compliance that deserve immediate attention, my team will follow up shortly with a specific request.
I urge you to ensure a prompt, accurate and complete response to this request within the next 24 hours. We will include your answer in our assessment file on your compliance with the DSA. I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed.
The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.
- Gavin Newsom
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We should all feel a deep sense of grief and outrage at the terrible violence that took place in Utah today. Charlie Kirk's murder is sick and reprehensible, and our thoughts are with his family, children, and loved ones.
- Governor Gavin Newsom [California]
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The attack on Charlie Kirk is appalling and unacceptable. Political violence has no place in a free society. No one should have to experience nor witness such trauma.
Axios talks about MAGA Influencers first and then mentions Iryna Zarutska as an afterthought.
"sea of attacks on Video Surveillance, Social Media, X, X followers, President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Charlie Kirk, Mike Lee, Michael Whatley"
- Peter Labrie
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A large section on the Daniel Penny case detailing a while man killing a black man. Race is an issue here.
My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab.
peter03102/status/1952360657011056784
My Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab.
peter03102/status/1952360657011056784