Elon Musk is considering removing access to Twitter/X within the EU

Elon Musk, the X (formerly known as Twitter) CEO, is reportedly considering removing access to the platform in the EU in response to its adoption of a new internet platform regulation.

A person familiar with the company reported to the news site Insider that the billionaire discussed removing the app's availability in the region or blocking users in the EU from accessing it.

The regulation Musk is objecting to is called the Digital Services Act (DSA) and was adopted by the EU in August. It outlined rules for preventing the spread of harmful content, banning or limiting certain user-targeting practices, and sharing internal data with regulators and associated research, amid other regulations.

This news comes after EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton issued warnings last week to both Musk and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta after misinformation quickly spread on their platforms about the Israel-Hamas conflict. He made public two letters addressed to the tech giants, telling each of them to "recall the obligations of the DSA act".

He specified that the DSA was designed to foster "a safe and accountable online environment" and implored them to mitigate "systemic risks, such as manipulation or disinformation."

Musk replied to the tweet, reminding Breton that X's "policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports." He then asked him to "please list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup."

Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports.

Please list the violations you allude to on 𝕏, so that that the public can see them.

Merci beaucoup.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2023