Ahead of Elon Musk’s live interview on X with former President Donald Trump, the European Union’s commissioner of the internal market wrote a letter to the platform’s owner warning him that he could face repercussions if hate speech and disinformation are not kept in check.
Musk is scheduled to speak with Trump at 8 p.m. Monday. With nearly one-third of X users living in the European Union, Thierry Breton reminded Musk he has an obligation to comply with standards set by the Digital Services Act, which addresses the regulation of illegal content and disinformation across social media and other online platforms.
If X fails to regulate disinformation and illegal content, it could “generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security,” Breton wrote. “This is important against the background of recent examples of public unrest brought about by the amplification of content that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation.”
Following the lethal stabbings of three girls in the United Kingdom by a 17-year-old, widespread anti-immigration protests have broken out about incorrect information spread on social media that the suspect was a radical Islamic immigrant.
Breton informed Musk that X must relay to EU authorities without any delays the measures taken to address the spread of disinformation and illegal content, swiftly take action upon learning of a violation, keep users in the loop about what they are doing to address the content, and “publicly report about content moderation measures.”
However, Trump campaign officials and supporters were frustrated by the EU leader’s communications, saying it amounted to election interference.
“The European Union should mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the U.S. Presidential election,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung wrote on X. “Only in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ America can an un-Democratic foreign organization feel emboldened enough to tell this country what to do. They know that a President Trump victory means America will no longer be ripped off because he will smartly utilize tariffs and renegotiated trade deals that puts America First.”
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“Let us be very clear: the European Union is an enemy of free speech and has no authority of any kind to dictate how we campaign,” he added.
In July, the EU charged X for being out of line with the DSA for making the blue checkmark, which indicates an account with “verified” status, to be available to anyone to purchase. The EU also found X at fault for not making its public data available to researchers.