Twitter “will respect the European law” aimed at fighting disinformation and the spread of hate on the Internet, assured the owner of the social network, the controversial Elon Musk, in an interview shown on Monday (19) by French TV channel France 2.
“If a law is enacted, Twitter undertakes to respect it,” the billionaire replied, when asked about the new European Union (EU) regulations for digital services. The interview with Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, was recorded on Friday alongside the VivaTech show in Paris.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) will come into force on 25 August and will require platforms to act “promptly” to remove any illegal content, on pain of fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover. Last month, Twitter withdrew from the EU’s code of good practice against internet disinformation, which was created in 2018.
During the interview, Musk emphasised that Twitter will not exceed “the legal provisions” on censorship and free speech, and cited the difficulty of putting the “cursor on what is good or bad, acceptable” or not. “However, if a law is enacted, as the law in democracy represents the will of the people, it must be respected,” he insisted.
When asked about the large number of Twitter layoffs during the (northern) autumn, Musk said the company has not “reduced moderation activity per se”.
“Moderation is carried out by approximately 4,000 employees, and the work has remained more or less the same,” he said, even referring to a “decrease” in hate speech, contradicting some studies.
Musk also advanced that it is “very likely” that his electric vehicle company Tesla will develop an “important” project in France.
It is “very likely that Tesla will do something very important in France in the coming years,” declared the billionaire, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The ruler said he wants to convince Musk to set up a battery plant for Tesla in France.
The American businessman also advocated “slowing down” artificial intelligence (AI) and not “stopping” it, after signing a petition calling for a six-month pause in research because of the risks it entails for humanity.
Musk, who in March founded X.AI, a new company specialising in this field, also said he would prefer to be a “participant” rather than an “observer”.
