this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe's new social media rules.

Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc's content rules.

If Musk fails to comply, the EU's rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.

Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X's own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is some "quality" reporting. Nowhere does the EU says to remove "graphic violent images", it's only asking for transparency in what gets removed and the removal of disinformation and calls to violence.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Getting rid of misinformation is great.

Getting rid of accurately reported, gruesome images because of a government mandate flies in the face of the core principles of free speech. And it would cause real damage to the world.

Remember that it was only when the world actually saw images of the Nazi concentration camps that the world actually believed it. They'd heard about it for years, but it was largely ignored.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Getting rid of misinformation is great.

That is the goal. The OP article and especially the headline here is misleading.

This is what is in the original letter regarding violent images: „repurposed old images of unrelated armed conflicts or military footage that actually originated from video games“.

The issue is not violent images per se. The issue is misinformation through violent images that are unrelated to the current events.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I respect that but the images presented to the public were selected to denounce and illustrate horrendous acts commited.

Here, I'd risk there is a very high risk/probability whatever may be leaked/posted is for pure shock value, with no intention to inform or contextualize.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Intent doesn't matter. People should be allowed to document and post crimes committed against humanity

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The pictures are old and don't relate to what's happening currently.

Also, what do you think the differences between pre-meditated murder and manslaughter are? Intent absolutely matters.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or what lol. Rich people are above the law.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm glad to see for once the fines are proportional to revenue, and not a fixed amount. 6% hurts.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Will it hurt though? How are they going to collect the 6%? Do US based banks cooperate with the EU on this kind of thing? What happens if Musk just tells them to go fuck themselves?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I assume EU-based ISPs will be forced to ban access to the website for noncompliance, otherwise it would have literally no teeth whatsoever

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

He's gonna fuck this up, too.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

He won't, we all know he won't. He'd sooner get Twitter banned from Europe than actually try to improve his platform.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is his goal to get the app banned from Europe?

I could see that being the business plan.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It would be great! Europe will be better without x

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A porn actress was made accountable for similar actions in less time and with more impact.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

End of Wednesday in Brussels was ~7h ago. So, yes.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is this the thing that finally makes Musk feel some pain? You can't wiggle out of this one, EU law is pretty tight on this stuff.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is this the thing that finally makes Musk feel some pain?

Not if his goal is to run Twitter into the ground. (And I'm about 3 months or so into believing it is.)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Although I can understand that perspective, I honestly think that he's actually just very, very dumb and completely clueless about how money actually works and how businesses function. He's rich enough to never have had to learn any of that and spend his way through failure after failure. I am absolutely certain that he believed that he'd run in there, steer the ship right, and all would be well.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any phrase, request or threat in the from of "do X or be subject to the rules" is inherently flawed.

Why not skip the asking part and go straight to the enforcing the rules part because they're, you know; the fucking rules.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

If that is Net Revenue, I have some bad news for the EU. 🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think you're thinking of profits, which is revenue minus costs.

EU fines are a percentage of global revenue, which means all the money you make in any way, anywhere in the world, before subtracting any bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Which was $4.4 billion in 2022 and is estimated to be roughly $3 billion for 2023, so the maximum fine would be 180-264 million depending on which figure is used.
For comparison, the net loss (not profit) for 2022 for twitter was 270 million.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Per occasion, and the Commission can also create a moderation enforcement team specifically for Twitter, basically forcing Twitter to have moderation, and put the cost of said moderation on Twitter, as charges separate to the fine.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Purging the images off social media will make it easier to deny that the atrocities ever happened. Keep them there in all their gory uglyness , perhaps put a spoiler tag over them to prevent someone with a feeble constitution from accidentally stumbling onto them and accidentally being triggered , but leave them there as evidence of the evil that happened.

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