Europe ramps up its battle with Elon Musk

A public dispute between Elon Musk and the European Union has sharpened concerns in Europe about its ability to wield power over the sprawling social media platform X at a time when disinformation and deepfakes have helped to fuel political discord and an outbreak of UK rioting. Europe has taken a tougher approach to regulating digital platforms than the US, but Musk’s acquisition of X, then called Twitter, almost two years ago has brought the issue into greater focus after he slashed its moderators, restored previously banned accounts and increased his own outspoken posts. The EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton posted a letter on X hours before Musk interviewed US presidential candidate Donald Trump on the platform, threatening the “full use” of sanctions under the Digital Services Act (DSA) if Musk failed to curb “illegal content”.  It increased tensions that had been building since X in December became the first platform to face an investigation under the DSA over claims it failed to be transparent about advertising and allowed the dissemination of content deemed illegal in the EU.