Twitter on "collision course" with EU authorities
Fear of Free Speech: The social media platform is under renewed scrutiny under new Big Tech surveillance laws

Under Elon Musk, Twitter is on a "collision course" with Brussels as the social media platform comes under scrutiny under EU big tech surveillance laws that come into force on Wednesday. European regulators are particularly concerned about the launch of premium subscription service Twitter Blue, which has been abused by impersonators on the platform.
Officials are also concerned about the number of departed Twitter executives, who have played a key role in dealing with regulators and implementing new EU rules aimed at curbing the spread of "illegal content" online. Critics, however, are increasingly calling these regulations censorship.
The Digital Services Act (DSA), which for the first time lays out the rules for how big tech should protect users online, went into effect on Wednesday and marks the first major overhaul of the laws affecting their operations in more than two years rules for decades.
"The DSA requires massive technical and legal compliance from Twitter as a very large online platform," said a person familiar with the situation. "Many of these people have left the company or been fired."
The EU will begin determining which platforms must meet the threshold of at least 45 million users and abide by the strict rules on Wednesday. This process will take four months. Twitter is expected to fall into that category, said two people familiar with the rules.
Christel Schaldemose, an MEP who chairs a group to implement the DSA, said that Twitter "might very well be the case to test DSA for the first time".
"If the EU doesn't ensure that the DSA rules also apply to Twitter, then that would be a failure," she added. "I hope and expect that the EU Commission will act quickly and decisively."
Twitter officials are expected to meet with EU officials later this month to discuss what the new rules mean for the platform, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Given the massive job cuts, it's unclear who will be present from Twitter and whether the company will stick to its previous "forgiving line" of "following one rule and not [a] million different ones," according to one of the two people.
However, if Musk doesn't address the growing number of fake profiles and trolls on the platform, Twitter could risk being banned by Brussels as part of the new rules, they warned.
The DSA gives the European Commission the power to ask a judge - in this case Ireland, where Twitter has its European headquarters - to ban the use of Twitter in the single market. Twitter also faces fines of up to 6 percent of its global revenue if it is found to be a repeat offender. Brussels can even order Twitter to change its behavior and issue periodic fines until the behavior stops.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commission's vice-president in charge of competition and digital policy, and Thierry Breton, the commissioner in charge of the internal market, want to make sure they hire enough staff to enforce the rules.
The Commission said: "We have always made it clear that we expect all platforms to respect their obligations under EU law and regulations".





