London mayor Sadiq Khan and EU Commissioner Thierry Breton have told Elon Musk that Twitter must conform to a more censorious vision of the internet and continue to combat “digital hate.”
Just after Elon Musk’s official acquisition of social media giant Twitter earlier this week, figures in Europe have already begun demanding that he adhere to their anti-free speech agenda.
Sadiq Khan, who has spent his time in office spearheading efforts to criminalise more speech in the British capital rather than dealing with the city’s actual violent crime, demanded that Mr Musk maintain the Silicon Valley social media site’s policy of combating “digital hate.”
While Twitter has many benefits for society, Khan believes Musk should be aware of the “growing dangers of digitally-instigated violent extremism, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and misinformation, which are very real and pose an existential threat to our democracy.”
“We cannot expose today’s children to the vile [and] violent ideologies of some users,” the London mayor said, adding that “any decision about allowing suspended users to return must be taken incredibly carefully & in direct consultation with experts in countering digital hate [and] misinformation.”
Across the Channel in Continental Europe, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton issued a veiled threat to the new Twitter CEO, warning that the site would still be subject to the EU’s speech restrictions.
Breton responded to Musk’s tweet that the “bird is freed” in reference to the Twitter logo, saying, “In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules.”