It's super fascinating to watch this unfold. The almost chaos-monkey approach of messing with everything here and there and watching how things fail and who complains. And then deciding whether or not it needs fixing. Observing how this the "online safety" system fails, reveals many details of how it used to work, details that were previously obscure. Apparently advertisers, ngos, and governments all seemed to have hotlines were they were able to control the moderation in real time.
The internet is essentially a worldwide network so having a company claim it only falls under U.S. jurisdiction even though it reaches users everywhere is still an unsolved enigma.
Most U.S. Big Tech companies have willingly set-up shop in Europe, but with increasingly acrimonious legislation putting them in the cross-hairs I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Musk tests if he can get away with merely operating from U.S. soil and ignoring EU legislation.
Should the CCP also have say in what content American companies are allowed to host? If not, then what part of your argument breaks by replacing "the EU" with "China"?
> EU To Warn Twitter And Facebook To Stick To Rules
> The social media giants' EU operations are based in Ireland, and Brussels is worried that a wave of job losses will undermine their content moderation and data protection standards.
> But there are concerns in Brussels that Musk's libertarian free speech stance -- and the gutting of Twitter's staff -- will undermine efforts to stamp out propaganda, hate speech and harassment.
---
A) This Brussels office is not Twitter's only, or even main, presence in the EU. So this probably isn't a "fine I'll just leave" thing.
B) This comes in the middle of a spat about whether Twitter is actually allowed to stop censoring things. The FT article sounds like this was probably the office responsible for coordinating Twitter's censorship policies with government policy makers?
"Do not do to others what you don't want be done to you" is a good starting point on which free speech should be allowed and which should not. You should not have freedom to curtail the freedoms of others.
No, absolute free speech has never been a blanket right in all of the EU states, why do you assume that? There are multiple laws against hate speech, against spreading of Nazi ideas, etc.
Do you have examples of when those laws have silenced a citizen from speaking their mind where it wouldn't cause damages to a minority or just other people in general? Because I'm fully onboard in not allowing Nazi-speech be spread around, it infects the mind of the fearful and tolerating it has been shown to not work.
The EU will just prevent their own citizens from purchasing subscriptions and ads. If anyone's going to block the site in the EU it would be Twitter themselves.
"Twitter has been a very useful partner in the fight against disinformation and illegal hate speech and this must not change."
Governments are supposed to do regulatory action and not partnerships. I rather have democratic laws (even with the minor power individual citizens has in EU), than governments officials being in control of content moderation at a public platform.
> Governments are supposed to do regulatory action and not partnerships.
This is a very American view of politics, and this view is certainly not shared by every human on Earth. Europeans voted for such governments, along with all the benefits and drawbacks.
Being able to choose governments that align with their ideals is democracy.
The disbanding of Twitter's Brussels office has sparked concerns whether Twitter will be able to comply with EU rules on online content (e.g. disinformation code).
Two remaining Brussels executives left last week after Musk asked staff to commit to a "hardcore working culture"; it's unclear whether they resigned or were fired.
The article quotes the EU's vice-president in charge of the disinformation code as saying she is "concerned" about Twitter's future ability to "detect and take action against disinformation and propaganda ... Especially in the context of Russian disinformation warfare, I expect Twitter to fully respect the EU law and honour its commitments. Twitter has been a very useful partner in the fight against disinformation and illegal hate speech and this must not change."
The article adds that advertisers are also worried.
>Elon Musk has said he's about context on tweets, so here's context for these shirts: They came from Twitter's Black employee resource group and were popularized by @jack, who wore a version around to conferences to support the group (and was sometimes ridiculed for it).
[+] [-] r721|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] im3w1l|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UltraViolence|3 years ago|reply
Most U.S. Big Tech companies have willingly set-up shop in Europe, but with increasingly acrimonious legislation putting them in the cross-hairs I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Musk tests if he can get away with merely operating from U.S. soil and ignoring EU legislation.
[+] [-] josephcsible|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tbrownaw|3 years ago|reply
> EU To Warn Twitter And Facebook To Stick To Rules
> The social media giants' EU operations are based in Ireland, and Brussels is worried that a wave of job losses will undermine their content moderation and data protection standards.
> But there are concerns in Brussels that Musk's libertarian free speech stance -- and the gutting of Twitter's staff -- will undermine efforts to stamp out propaganda, hate speech and harassment.
---
A) This Brussels office is not Twitter's only, or even main, presence in the EU. So this probably isn't a "fine I'll just leave" thing.
B) This comes in the middle of a spat about whether Twitter is actually allowed to stop censoring things. The FT article sounds like this was probably the office responsible for coordinating Twitter's censorship policies with government policy makers?
[+] [-] Am4TIfIsER0ppos|3 years ago|reply
> local Twitter executives who had key positions to deal with government officials
> the EU’s vice-president in charge of the disinformation code
Imagine thinking these are good and the changes are bad. Never let anyone tell you we have free speech in europe.
[+] [-] giorgosts|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piva00|3 years ago|reply
Do you have examples of when those laws have silenced a citizen from speaking their mind where it wouldn't cause damages to a minority or just other people in general? Because I'm fully onboard in not allowing Nazi-speech be spread around, it infects the mind of the fearful and tolerating it has been shown to not work.
[+] [-] amadeuspagel|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjpnz|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malermeister|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lzooz|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] belorn|3 years ago|reply
Governments are supposed to do regulatory action and not partnerships. I rather have democratic laws (even with the minor power individual citizens has in EU), than governments officials being in control of content moderation at a public platform.
[+] [-] d23|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zamalek|3 years ago|reply
This is a very American view of politics, and this view is certainly not shared by every human on Earth. Europeans voted for such governments, along with all the benefits and drawbacks.
Being able to choose governments that align with their ideals is democracy.
[+] [-] thejohnconway|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akolbe|3 years ago|reply
Two remaining Brussels executives left last week after Musk asked staff to commit to a "hardcore working culture"; it's unclear whether they resigned or were fired.
The article quotes the EU's vice-president in charge of the disinformation code as saying she is "concerned" about Twitter's future ability to "detect and take action against disinformation and propaganda ... Especially in the context of Russian disinformation warfare, I expect Twitter to fully respect the EU law and honour its commitments. Twitter has been a very useful partner in the fight against disinformation and illegal hate speech and this must not change."
The article adds that advertisers are also worried.
[+] [-] sposeray|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dpdpdp|3 years ago|reply
Taking a look at the actual data[2], hate speech has decreased.
1: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595250835096621057
2: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595630109116989440
[+] [-] d23|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r721|3 years ago|reply
>Elon Musk has said he's about context on tweets, so here's context for these shirts: They came from Twitter's Black employee resource group and were popularized by @jack, who wore a version around to conferences to support the group (and was sometimes ridiculed for it).
https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1595271296459292672
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]