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An image of elon musk and the twitter logo superimposed over Europe.

Twitter / X Leaving Europe

Part of a series on Twitter / X. [View Related Entries]

Updated Oct 20, 2023 at 06:51PM EDT by Zach.

Added Oct 20, 2023 at 12:24PM EDT by Mateus.

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About

Twitter / X Leaving Europe refers to a rumor by X / Twitter owner Elon Musk in which he is reported to be "increasingly frustrated" with the Europan Union's (EU) new Digital Services Act (DSA) and plans to pull the social media platform out of the EU. The report from Insider became a trending topic in October 2023, inspiring memes, jokes and discussions on social media surrounding the controversy.

Overview

On October 18th, 2023, the news website Insider[1] released a report stating that Elon Musk is considering taking X "out of Europe amid EU compliance investigation." The article explains that Musk is "increasingly frustrated" with the EU's then-recent Digital Services Act (DSA), as the new law[2] designates big tech corporations like Meta, Alphabet and X to be legally responsible for the content that users post to their platforms (unlike in the U.S. where Section 230 protects them).

The YouTube[3] news channel @WION explained Musk's rumors (shown below), amassing over 3,500 views and 31 likes in two days.



Developments

On October 19th, 2023, Elon Musk[4] responded to a tweet about the Insider report saying, "Yet another utterly false Business Insider. They are not a real publication." The post (shown below), received more than 8,200 likes and 2,400 retweets in a day.


Elon Musk @elonmusk Follow X Yet another utterly false Business Insider. They are not a real publication. 5:53 AM - Oct 19, 2023

Online Reactions

The possibility of X leaving Europe ignited a debate on social media, as some users disagreed with Musk's management of the platform. For instance, on October 19th, 2023, X[5] user posted a meme of Homelander from The Boys TV series paired with the caption "Twitter leaving Europe? I'll be freeeeeeeee." The post (shown below, amassed roughly 5 likes in a day.


Search Interest

External References

[1] Insider – Elon Musk is considering taking X out of Europe amid EU compliance investigation

[2] Mashable – Twitter / X: Elon Musk considers a petty move to escape EU disinformation scrutiny

[3] YouTube – Elon Musk considers removing 'X' from Europe over EU law: Report | Latest World News | WION

[4] X – elonmusk

[5] X – AnguisPlus

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Top Comments

Mothman
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Mothman

I think the much more concerning thing here is the proposed law.

"The website is held accountable for content posted by users."

That probably sounds innocent to anyone naive to corporate greed and/or who hasn't seen it in action.

This is how you get super bullshit website rules and "policy changes".

Ex. This could lead to heavy content filtering, assigned to algorithms like Youtube's to remove anything that COULD be copyright/violent/offensive etc, like using an axe where a scalpel would be appropriate.

Imagine if what happened to Tumblr and "sensitive content" or youtube happened to an entire region's internet. A large region that uses a lot of internet, too, forcing companies to adapt or lose massive amounts of revenue, and we already KNOW they'd do this shit for less.

This entire situation feels like a real case of not being able to see the forest through the trees. Twitter is just one tree that is threatened by this, now step back and look at the rest.

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