Twitter’s closure of Brussels headquarters raises concerns
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Summary:
- Elon Musk shut down Twitter's entire Brussels headquarters.
- Concerns about whether twitter has the manpower to ensure adherence to local legislation.
Twitter sparking online safety issues
After a disagreement over how the social network's content should be regulated in the Union, Elon Musk shut down Twitter's entire Brussels headquarters. According to the Financial Times, Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa, who were in charge of Twitter's digital policy in Europe, left the business last week. The executives were instrumental in getting the business to abide by the landmark EU Digital Services Act, which went into effect last week and established new guidelines for Big Tech companies to protect users' privacy online.
At the beginning of the month, other executives had already left the tiny Brussels headquarters after Elon Musk cut the number of employees in the company in half, from 7,500 to about 3,750, in the weeks following his £38 billion takeover. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted that "the bird is liberated" after completing his platform acquisition. Thierry Breton, a European commissioner, curtly reminded everyone of the EU's content-moderation standards shortly after that and said, "In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules." As he began a hiring push, Mr. Musk had previously stated that Twitter's recent round of layoffs would end this week.
Twitter’s global legislation
The departures from Brussels are indicative of a global trend that started in India and moved to France, where regional Twitter executives who held important positions dealing with government officials suddenly left the company in recent weeks as a result of sweeping layoffs.
This has raised concerns about whether the business has the manpower to ensure adherence to local legislation intended to monitor internet material, raising the possibility of legal action and regulatory action against the business.
Data showing a 5% annual decline in hate speech removals from Twitter was released by the European Commission on Thursday. These problems come as Musk's attempts to overhaul Twitter's operations have encountered difficulties, particularly with regard to the user identity verification process.
Sources: finance.yahoo.com, ft.com
