(Paris) Twitter “will respect the European law” intended to fight against disinformation and hatred online, assured the controversial boss of the social network, Elon Musk, in an interview broadcast Monday evening on France 2.
“Twitter will obey the law. If a law is enacted, I repeat myself, Twitter is committed to respecting it,” hammered the billionaire in response to a question about the new EU legislation on digital services (DSA), during a recorded interview. Friday on the sidelines of the VivaTech show in Paris.
The DSA (Digital Services act), which will come into force on August 25, must in particular require platforms to act “promptly” to remove any illegal content and provides for fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover. .
At the end of May, Musk removed Twitter from the EU’s code of practice on disinformation, a series of voluntary commitments launched in 2018.
European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova then lamented that Twitter had chosen “confrontation”, while French Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot threatened to “ban” the social network.
“We are not going to be more royalist than the king” and go beyond “legal provisions” in terms of censorship and freedom of expression, the boss of Tesla and Space X tempered, citing the difficulty of placing the “cursor on this which is good or bad, acceptable” or not.
“On the other hand, if a law is enacted, because the law in a democracy represents the will of the people […] it must be respected”.
Asked about the massive layoffs among Twitter teams since its takeover in the fall, “we haven’t reduced moderation activity per se. Moderation is carried out by about 4,000 collaborators […] and the work has remained about the same, ”assured Musk, even referring to a “decrease” in hate speech, contradicted by some studies.
“Almost all advertisers have returned or said they will return” after leaving the platform since its takeover, he further claimed, stating that “the bottom line” for his business was to “not have any financial losses.
Signatory of a petition calling for a six-month pause in research on generative artificial intelligences because of their risks for humanity, the businessman pleaded to “slow down” AI, not “stop” it “.
The man who founded X.AI, a new company specializing in this field, in March also prefers to be a “participant” than an “observer”.
