Elon Musk has received several unusually public invitations to appear before the European Union parliament to discuss Twitter.
Roberta Metsola, a Maltese politician who is the president of the parliament sent a letter to the Twitter to the CEO with such an invitation earlier this week.
The summons comes after EU officials threatened Elon Musk with sanctions and fines— up to six percent of Twitter’s gross revenue— for banning former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann and reporters from CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Yet, Musk also has fans within the EU parliament as well.
Separately, Robert “Rob” Roos a Dutch politician and member of the Juiste Antwoord 2021 political party has invited Musk to come testify before the EU parliament about “Big Tech censorship during COVID. Did Big Tech collude with EU [governments,?” Roos said in a recent Twitter post. Roos has used his position as a member of the EU parliament to criticize Europe’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Roos appeared was invited on a Fox News television program in the United States hosted by Tucker Carlson in October to criticize actions taken by European governments early the COVID-19 pandemic and a policy of what he called “vaccine passports.” Roos has tweeted several times in support of Musk’s policies as the CEO of Twitter.
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, Twitter could be fined up to 6% of its gross annual revenues, a penalty that could top $180 million. Twitter is not expected to report profits this fiscal year. The EU’s Digital Service Act was adopted into law on November 16, just weeks after Musk acquired Twitter on October 27 for $44 billion.
Musk cited physical safety, one of the oldest provisions of the Twitter code of conduct, as the reason for the bans. Musk said that the media figures were implicitly threatening the safety of Musk’s children by revealing the real-time movements of Musk’s jet and other vehicles. Recently a masked, black-clad activist leaped onto the hood of a vehicle with one of Musk’s young children inside. Musk’s security shot video of the man that Musk called “the stalker.” “Any account doxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting location someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is okay.” tweeted Musk on December 14.
Reporters for the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post were among those recently locked out of their accounts for promoting a site that tracked Musk’s movements.
Twitters tussle with the European Union comes as another potential showdown with Twitter looms. Social media platforms operating in the European Union must report their total number of users to the commission by February 2023.
