EU official warns Musk he'll have to 'fly by our rules' as he buys Twitter

A apical European Union authoritative had a informing for Elon Musk Friday astir his $44 acquisition of Twitter, telling the billionaire helium volition person to play by the rules.

After a cryptic tweet from Musk suggesting he'd completed his acquisition of Twitter, Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the interior market, warned Musk that helium volition person to comply with the bloc's caller integer regulations.

"The vertebrate is freed," Musk tweeted. In response, Breton quote-tweeted Musk saying: "In Europe, the vertebrate volition alert by our rules."

Although not officially confirmed, a spokesperson for crypto speech Binance, which provided Musk equity financing for the Twitter takeover, said Friday the transaction had been completed.

Musk, 1 of Twitter's astir fashionable users, is known for tweeting everything from announcements about Tesla and his different companies, to memes and attacks connected his critics.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has antecedently called himself a "free code absolutist," and says helium wants to betterment Twitter arsenic a "digital municipality square" with less restrictions connected what users tin say.

That volition person ramifications for the mode contented is moderated connected Twitter, a cardinal interest for regulators looking to rein successful integer giants implicit the dispersed of hatred code and disinformation online.

Under the European Union's precocious approved Digital Services Act, ample tech companies volition beryllium required to person robust contented moderation systems to guarantee they tin rapidly instrumentality down amerciable worldly specified arsenic hatred speech, incitement to coercion and kid intersexual abuse.

 For his part, Musk has said he wouldn't let amerciable contented connected the platform.

The EU's rules are expected to travel into unit by 2024. Companies tin beryllium fined up to 6% of planetary yearly revenues for violations.

Guy Verhofstadt, a subordinate of the European Parliament, said Friday that "the request for rules and accountability is bigger than ever."

"So 1 man @elonmusk now owns the biggest statement successful the satellite …" helium said successful a tweet. "Self-regulation successful societal media has ne'er worked … adjacent with lesser characters than his."

Breton, a erstwhile CEO of French IT consulting steadfast Atos, is seen arsenic a cardinal designer of the European Union's integer reforms. Alongside the Digital Markets Act, which seeks to curb the dominance of net giants, the Digital Services Act is portion of a bold program by the bloc to modulate Big Tech.

In May, Musk and Breton met successful person, and Musk astatine the clip said the Digital Services Act was "exactly aligned with my thinking."

But regulators connected some sides of the Atlantic are disquieted that Musk could, for example, let erstwhile President Donald Trump backmost onto the platform. Musk, who has antecedently said he would reverse the ban connected Trump's account, reportedly intends to scrap beingness bans connected Twitter users, according to Bloomberg.