The funny thing about authoritarian bureaucrats is that they often get too big for their britches. Earlier this week, we saw this in one European Union bureaucrat’s letter to Elon Musk ahead of the billionaire’s Monday interview with former President Donald Trump.
PJ Media’s Bryan Jung wrote about Thierry Breton, the commissioner for Internal Market of the EU, and his letter demanding “compliance” with EU regulations. Breton warned Musk of the “risk of amplification of potentially harmful content” in a Trump interview.
With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024
As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in 🇪🇺 in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk
📧⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn
Musk used a meme to tell Breton to pound sand — in so many words. X CEO Linda Yaccarino called Breton’s antics “an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US.”
Now the EU leadership is willing to let Breton twist in the wind over his letter. It didn’t take long for Breton’s colleagues to turn on him.
“It took less than a day for the European Commission to completely backtrack on its attempt to intimidate X owner Elon Musk into censoring his interview with President Trump,” writes Tamás Orbán at The European Conservative. “Officials distanced themselves from the commissioner who sent the threatening letter and claimed that he acted alone, with no prior authorization from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.”
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On Tuesday the European Commission denied Breton had approval from its president Ursula von der Leyen to send the letter.
“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the [commissioners],” it said.
An EU official, who asked not to be named, said: “Thierry has his own mind and way of working and thinking.”
The EU has been investigating X since last year for violations of its digital security policy, specifically over the “dissemination of illegal content and information manipulation.” Interviewing Trump was a bridge too far for Breton, who sought to exert control.
“Officials close to Breton said the letter had been planned for some time and that the interview, hailed by Musk as ‘unprecedented,’ seemed an appropriate ‘trigger point’ for publishing,” reports the Financial Times.
Musk doesn’t care. He has dug his heels in to protect free speech on the platform he owns despite pressure from the EU.
“Last month, Elon Musk also revealed that the European Commission offered him a ‘secret backroom deal’ to increase censorship on X to avoid being slapped with massive fines under the DSA [the EU's Digital Services Act] without having to compromise his image as a ‘free speech absolutist,’ but the billionaire promptly refused,” Orbán writes. “That discussion may have led Breton to write the first draft of the letter, which he admitted to keeping on the shelf for some time now while waiting for an appropriate time to publish.”
It's encouraging to see Musk standing up to snotty European bureaucrats who can't mind their own business. If only other American media outlets did the same.
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