Tech billionaire Elon Musk may restrict access to X in Europe over the continent’s content moderation laws, a source told the website Insider.
In France, Spain and Germany alone, X has nearly 40 million users.
The report comes as tension between X and the European Union is running high. This week, the EU issued a formal information request to X over the site’s hosting of “illegal” content. An EU commissioner also sent a letter to X calling on the site to crack down on violent and misleading content relating to the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
Both letters sent by the EU implied that X could be found in violation of Europe’s Digital Services Act. The law, which went into effect in August, requires digital platforms to limit the hosting of harmful or misleading content and share their data with EU researchers.
If platforms like X fail to comply with the law, they could be subject to fines or be outright banned in the region.
Mr. Musk has mostly brushed off the complaints by European regulators. In a response to the allegations that X was hosting violent and misleading content, he said the EU has not given him any examples and implied that the organization is hypocritical.
However, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a letter to EU authorities that X has removed thousands of Hamas-associated accounts and that community notes have flagged hundreds of misleading posts.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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