A grotesque video has just been broadcast online by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market. We can see Thierry Breton and Elon Musk side by side, talking about the benefits of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the middle of the Tesla factory in Austin, Texas.
More specifically, Elon Musk declares his love for the moderation of platform content which must be imposed by the new European rules on the regulation of social networks.
“I agree with everything you said, really, I think we are on the same wavelength,” says Elon Musk.
For a libertarian like Elon Musk, the attitude is more than strange
Thierry Breton claims in this video to have explained to Elon Musk what the Digital Services Act (DSA) consisted of, which will force the major platforms to better fight against illegal content.
For a libertarian like Elon Musk, the attitude is more than strange.
The richest man in the world has decided to buy Twitter to make it a bastion of freedom of expression.
Today @elonmusk and I wanted to share a quick message with you on platform regulation ??#DSA pic.twitter.com/nvP5FEXECY
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 9, 2022
Multiply income by five
According to New York Timeshe would also like to multiply the annual turnover of Twitter by five by 2028 to increase it to 26.4 billion dollars by this deadline, far from the five billion dollars earned by the platform in 2021.
The equation seems complicated, but the businessman adds an additional difficulty by announcing that he wants to reduce the advertising revenue generated by the social network.
In return, the entrepreneur wants to change the share of subscriptions (paid accounts on the platform via the premium Twitter Blue offer) so that they bring in an additional $10 billion to Twitter in 2028.
Twitter will have to comply with the DSA
But beyond economic issues, Elon Musk has set his sights on Twitter in the name of defending freedom of expression. A freedom of expression that he considers violated by an overly strict moderation of content.
It is therefore to wonder if Elon Musk has understood the DSA project: to impose responsibility for the publication of content on social network platforms. A concept of law which is even foreign for the time being to American law.
At the end of April, Thierry Breton declared that Twitter “should fully adapt to European rules” whatever the orientations of Elon Musk in terms of freedom of expression. “Whether it is on online harassment, the sale of counterfeit products, child pornography, calls for terrorist acts, Twitter will have to adapt to our European regulations which do not exist in the United States”, insisted the commissioner. .