Musk Says EU Law on Illegal Content and Tech Firm Transparency ‘Exactly Aligned’ With His Thinking

Elon Musk arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, N.Y., on May 2, 2022. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who is looking to finalize a deal to buy Twitter, said he agrees with the contours of a new European Union law meant to police illegal content, boost social media platform transparency, and enhance competitiveness to allow for more innovation and consumer choice.

Musk met with E.U. industry chief Thierry Breton in Texas on Monday, with the Tesla chief signaling his agreement with the Digital Services Act (DSA), flagship legislation in the E.U. whose aims include reigning in illegal content on social media platforms and forcing tech companies to be more transparent about their recommendation algorithms.

Breton posted a video on Twitter, in which the E.U. official tells Musk that he explained the Digital Services Act to the Tesla chief, telling Musk that, “it fits pretty well with what you think we should do.”

“I think it’s exactly aligned with my thinking,” Musk responds. “I think we’re very much of the same mind.”

“Anything that my companies can do that would be beneficial to Europe, we want to do that,” Musk added.

Musk and Breton did not go into detail on the new law, which levies hefty fines on companies for non-compliance.

The two main stated goals of the new rules are to create a safer digital space for users and to “establish a level playing field” that would enhance innovation, boost competitiveness, and provide consumers with more choice.

The rules include measures to counter illegal goods, services, and content online, including a mechanism for users to flag questionable content.

There’s also a ban on advertising aimed at children or based on religion, gender, race, and political opinions, for instance.

The new rules also feature transparency measures for online platforms on a number of issues, including on the algorithms used for recommending content or products to users.

A spokesman for Breton’s office later told Tech Crunch that the pair had a “constructive exchange on the impact of the recently adopted E.U. Digital Services Act on online platforms in areas such as freedom of speech, algorithm transparency, or user responsibility.”

‘Inclusive Arena for Free Speech’

Breton and Musk’s meeting came weeks after the world’s richest man clinched a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion in cash.

Musk has said his aim in seeking to buy Twitter is to take the company private and transform it into an “inclusive arena for free speech.”

The takeover attempt is not about making money, Musk has insisted, but to affect a number of changes to the platform and reduce the “civilizational risk” to freedom and democracy from what Musk has described as Twitter’s excessive and opaque restrictions on expression.

Some of the changes Musk has teased include cracking down on spam bots, making the algorithm open source to bolster transparency, and generally shifting the content moderation policies towards erring on the side of more free speech.

A self-described “free speech absolutist,” Musk told the audience at a recent TED event in Vancouver, Canada, that Twitter should permit unconstrained expression, though it should do so in line with the law.

“In my view, Twitter should match the laws of the country,” Musk told the audience, acknowledging reasonable legal caps on free speech like direct incitement to violence or shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

“But going beyond that and having it be unclear who’s making what changes to where, having tweets mysteriously be promoted and demoted with no insight into what’s going on, having a black box algorithm promote some things and not other things, I think this can be quite dangerous,” Musk said.

“My strong, intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization,” he added.

Musk’s remarks about his objectives for Twitter prompted Breton to say that Twitter would have to comply with new E.U. rules, including on policing illegal content.

The Digital Services Act is expected to come into force in the E.U. in the coming years.