Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk yesterday made serious accusations against the European Commission on the short messaging service X.com. In a public post, Musk revealed an alleged illegal deal that the EU Commission is said to have negotiated with X.com. The background is the Commission’s demand for the deletion of unwanted messages on the platform, which X.com views as a restriction of freedom of expression and a form of censorship.
In this context, X.com perceives itself as a victim of political censorship and interference in public opinion. The platform refuses to comply with this demand, arguing that it constitutes a restriction of freedom of speech.
Elon Musk claims that senior EU officials had previously met with him and presented a proposal. According to Musk, X.com was supposed to secretly introduce censorship in exchange for avoiding a potential penalty from the EU Commission.
The European Commission offered ???? an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2024
The other platforms accepted that deal.
???? did not. https://t.co/4lKsaRsYoA
The European Commission has not publicly responded to these allegations so far. However, the issue raises questions about the independence of media and platforms, as well as compliance with legal standards in digital communication.