The Renew Europe group sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on Tuesday 8 November, asking her to hold Elon Musk to account at a European Parliament hearing for the measures he implemented following his takeover of the social network Twitter (see EUROPE 13054/14).
Members of the Renew Europe group are particularly concerned about the potential dangers of weakening resources and the fight against online disinformation and hate speech.
These concerns stem in part from the fact that the American billionaire has made numerous statements and radical decisions since his acquisition of the social network on 28 October for a sum of around €44 billion.
On Friday 4 November, almost half of the company’s 7,500 employees were made redundant - by email - in order to cut costs for the loss-making company. A significant number of departments within the company were affected, including the ‘Trust and Security’ team, which is responsible for combating online disinformation and hate speech.
“[Elon Musk] should come to see us so he can understand the European rules of the game. He has obligations under the Digital Services Act and the 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation, which Twitter is subject to”, said Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)