Elon Musk has until the end of Wednesday to respond to demands from Brussels to remove graphic images and disinformation linked to the violence in Israel from his social network X — or face the full force of Europe’s new social media rules.
Thierry Breton, the European Union commissioner who oversees the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) rules, wrote to the owner of X, formerly Twitter, to warn Musk of his obligations under the bloc’s content rules.
If Musk fails to comply, the EU’s rules state X could face fines of up to 6 percent of its revenue for potential wrongdoing. Under the regulations, social media companies are obliged to remove all forms of hate speech, incitement to violence and other gruesome images or propaganda that promote terrorist organizations.
Since Hamas launched its violent attacks on Israel on October 7, X has been flooded with images, videos and hashtags depicting — in graphic detail — how hundreds of Israelis have been murdered or kidnapped. Under X’s own policies, such material should also be removed immediately.
I never said it was the same, it’s called a comparison. We ban images of sex abuse because of the harm sharing those images does to victims. Hamas has gone through a lot of effort to film and disseminate what they did in Israel online, and they are doing so with the intent of doing harm to the victims’ families. While there may not be laws in the USA prohibiting the sharing of this content, I would still argue that it is morally reprehensible given that you are participating in something intended to do harm.
What it’s ‘intended’ to do doesn’t really matter. If you notice, people aren’t supporting Hamas. They see these videos and they’re rallying behind them in support for Israel.
Wow. It’s almost like, exactly how I said, showing people instead of telling them causes them to take war seriously.