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Elon Musk clashed with the EU forward of a deliberate interview with Donald Trump on X as a disagreement broke out between Brussels and the expertise billionaire’s social media platform over content material associated to the US election.
The dispute erupted as Trump, the Republican US presidential nominee, returned to X on Monday with quite a few posts on a social media platform that had as soon as banned him, simply hours earlier than the interview with Musk.
The billionaire’s deliberate occasion with Trump triggered a strident warning to X from Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the interior market, in regards to the dissemination of “content material that promotes hatred, dysfunction, incitement to violence, or sure cases of disinformation”.
Breton mentioned in a letter addressed to Musk that he was “compelled to remind” the tech entrepreneur of the “due diligence obligations” set out within the EU’s Digital Companies Act, which is designed to police on-line hate speech and disinformation.
Breton mentioned he was writing to Musk “in relation to” the deliberate dwell X broadcast with Trump on Monday, and after current violence within the UK, the place social media platforms have been criticised for inciting race riots throughout the nation.
Musk responded to Breton with a meme from the 2008 film Tropic Thunder, by which an actor yells: “Take a giant step again and actually fuck your personal face.”
X chief government Linda Yaccarino wrote of Breton’s letter: “That is an unprecedented try to stretch a legislation supposed to use in Europe to political actions within the US. It additionally patronises European residents, suggesting they’re incapable of listening to a dialog and drawing their very own conclusions.”
The Trump marketing campaign blasted the EU as an “enemy of free speech” in response to Breton’s letter. “The European Union ought to thoughts their very own enterprise as an alternative of attempting to meddle within the US presidential election,” mentioned a Trump marketing campaign spokesperson.
The marketing campaign additionally recommended that the bloc was attempting to stop Trump’s return to the presidency due to commerce coverage.
“They know {that a} President Trump victory means America will now not be ripped off as a result of he’ll well utilise tariffs and renegotiated commerce offers that places America First,” it mentioned.
Musk, a self-declared “free-speech absolutist”, endorsed Trump’s re-election bid final month simply after the failed assassination try in opposition to him, and lately launched a marketing campaign funding group to help the previous president’s White Home bid.
Trump mentioned the interview with Musk on Monday on X can be the “interview of the century”, and marked the occasion with posts on the platform that was essential to his electoral success in 2016.
Among the many posts was a marketing campaign video that reminded viewers of the federal indictments in opposition to him for allegedly mishandling categorised paperwork and conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. “They need to silence me as a result of I’ll by no means allow them to silence you,” says Trump within the video. He additionally vows to “completely obliterate the Deep State”.
The put up had greater than 19mn views 4 hours after it was posted, based on X.
One other video criticised Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival on this 12 months’s presidential election.
Trump’s sudden reappearance on X comes as this 12 months’s race for the White Home tightens, with Harris now degree and even forward in some swing states, based on surveys performed since she changed President Joe Biden because the Democratic candidate.
X, previously Twitter, banned Trump from the platform for all times in 2021 shortly after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6. He had repeatedly violated the platform’s guidelines in opposition to inciting or glorifying violence.
Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022, reinstated Trump’s account later that 12 months and loosened the platform’s moderation insurance policies, permitting suspended and controversial figures to return.
Earlier than Monday, Trump had solely posted as soon as since Musk reinstated his account — on August 24 2023, when he surrendered to authorities in Georgia on felony expenses regarding his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat within the state. The put up sparked a surge in donations to his marketing campaign.
Trump launched his personal social media platform, Reality Social, in 2022, in an try to compete with Twitter.
A clause between Reality Social and Trump requiring him to put up on the platform six hours earlier than doing so elsewhere expired final 12 months. Trump’s viewers on X, the place he has 88mn followers, is much higher than on Reality Social, the place he has 7.5mn followers.
In quarterly earnings launched on Friday, gross sales at Trump Media & Know-how Group, the corporate behind Reality Social, fell from $1.19mn to $837,000 within the three months to June, with it reporting a internet lack of $16.4mn. Shares in TMTG closed down 5.1 per cent on Monday in New York.
This text has been amended to appropriate Trump Media & Know-how’s quarterly figures
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