Elon Musk’s Twitter platform could potentially be banned in Europe if it doesn’t follow the disinformation rules. The threat comes from France’s Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot who recently talked about the importance of following guidelines to combat fake news on social media.
“Disinformation is one of the gravest threats weighing on our democracies,” Barrot said during an interview on France Info. “Twitter, if it repeatedly doesn’t follow our rules, will be banned from the EU.”
Barrot’s comments come as Twitter withdrew from a voluntary rulebook that included guidelines for big tech companies that also include Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft. Participating in the latter code was not mandatory but was created to facilitate the obligations that the tech companies would have to follow with the mandatory Digital Services Act that go into effect in August in the European Union.
Musk has maintained that one of the reasons he bought Twitter was for transparency championing freedom of expression. The billionaire has proposed to be a source of news and proposed ideas to combat disinformation. One of the ways that Musk has fought against fake news is with Community Notes, which allows select Twitter users to add notes and give particular tweets more context.
The notes contributors add to tweets are visible to all users at large to help others determine if the information provided was factual or incorrect.
Musk has not commented publicly on the potential ban of the platform from Europe.
