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EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#32I mean, is there really any reason to continue offering the service in Europe? I highly doubt the revenue is really worth the trouble.
At this point, X is a propaganda tool for the radical right. I won't miss X in Europe if you decide to remove access to EU. Please, do it.
Mind you, 120M USD is peanuts for Musk. If it were me, I'd just fine X 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 USD just because I want to retaliate against Trump's silliness. If you wanna play hardball, expect it back. But, but... freedom of bullshit. You can keep that, we can perfectly use freedom of speech on solid platforms instead.
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably, but as I mentioned before, the EU has been using the DSA as a negotiating tool against the US - just like we are using Free Speech absolutism and "censorship" as a tool against the EU in negotiations. Unlike other major tech companies like Meta or Alphabet that fall under the DSA, X doesn't have a similar presence in the EU to give it a firewall. Alphabet has Poland on it's side [0], Meta has Ireland on it'…
The DSA is decades overdue. It's absurd that there hasn't been one. There's also a dozen non-EU countries that have one, and that number has been growing rapidly. To call it a "negotiation tool" is like calling literally any import tax or tariff - of which hundreds of thousands existed and were entirely accepted as squarely in the Overton Window long before Trump took office - purely a "negotiation tool". Just becaus…
> There's also a dozen non-EU countries that have one, and that number has been growing rapidly
Not really. Most of them offer significant carve-outs for American BigTech companies, or their implementation has been stayed, or significant capex subsidizes are provided to help reduce their impact for American BigTechs considering FDI in those countries.
It has been a DNC supported policy [0] as well to put pressure on countries that are even considering a digital services act. Heck the Biden admin began the process of making a legal example out of Canada [1] as a warning shot to other countries considering such options.
> To call it a "negotiation tool" is like calling literally any import tax or tariff ... purely a "negotiation tool".
That is what import taxes and tariffs are when not clubbed with subsidizes and formal sector specific industrial policy, because the act of giving MFN status to certain nations is itself a negotiating tactic. Canada's backing down on a digital service tax is a good example of that [2]
The whole point of (eg.) giving the UK preferential market access to the US over the EU, and giving Japan and South Korea preferential market access to the US over China is because it is a lever we can use when negotiating. Heck, France and Germany have both constantly tried leveraging tariffs and import taxes as a negotiating tactic against the US under the Biden admin [3][4] (and of course earlier).
As I mentioned above, this has been a slow-rolling negotiation between the US and EU since 2019. We in the US have bipartisan support to oppose the DSA and DSA-equivalents abroad. It was prominent stance in the Biden administration [0], and even Harris would have put a similar degree of pressure on the EU.
We have no obligation to give Europeans a red carpet, and you guys are not in a position to push back anyhow. The Chinese [5] and Russians have given similar ultimatums to the EU as well. What are you going to do? Sign an FTA with India and then face the same problem in 10 years with them?
You guys have fallen into the same trap that the Mughal and Qing Empires fell into in the 18th-19th century. Anyhow, we've unofficially signalled we are leaving the responsibility of Europe's defenses to Europe by 2027 [6] - meaning member states have no choice but to end up buying American gear or completely vacillate to Russia on Ukraine.
[0] - https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/-wyden-and-cra...
[1] - https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-...
[2] - https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/06/can...
[3] - https://www.politico.eu/article/france-and-germany-find-grou...
[4] - https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/expressions/real-reason...
[5] - https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3316875/ch...
[6] - https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-sets-2...
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's stupid to force companies to accommodate researchers. If researchers want data then they can negotiate a paid license for it.
Not sure how much "It's stupid" adds to the conversation. GP made an argument.
Maybe it’s stupid in your perspective. nevertheless; nations have the right to put laws in place and enterprises willing to provide goods and services ought to follow those rules.
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#35> "Europe is taxing Americans to subsidize a continent held back by Europe’s own suffocating regulations," Carr said. And America is taxing Americans via tariffs to subsidize a corrupt executive branch lining its own pockets. At least Europe is looking out for a whole continent. Not just a handful of grifters.
Europe does tax its people a lot more. So the argument doesn't make sense.
It's just a dog whistle. People hate tax, so calling things that are not tax "tax" triggers anger in people without deep critical thinking skills. Or people with skills but not enough energy or time to use them on this particular issue.
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#36I mean, is there really any reason to continue offering the service in Europe? I highly doubt the revenue is really worth the trouble.
It’s an effective tool to influence less informed people. How else would they make Farage/Brexit/FN/VB/Orban/… things relevant in public discourse?
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#37[flagged]
> Europe should fight its own wars. We civilized them.
It's a whole new level of naive if you think the Nazi's would have left the US alone after they were done with Europe.
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The blue check symbolised (symbolises) being verified, i.e. this account belongs to who it says it does. But it doesn't carry out any/sufficient checks to actually verify that. See also: https://x.com/jesus/status/1590405986925543424
Twitter created that definition and now the EU has the divine right to not let them change it? Verified can and does mean many things.
Governments actually have the legal right to enact regulations on how companies operate within their jurisdiction.
If the company does not want to comply they can simply stop operating there.
Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#39Re: EU hits X with €120M fine for breaching the Digital Services Act
#40[flagged]
Don't do business in Europe if you don't like it. It's not hard.
And if you must use these kind of loaded terms, insisting you MUST be allowed to do business on YOUR TERMS and your terms alone is pretty much how colonisation started.