Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to news in the morning of February 7, Beijing time, Elon Musk's Twitter company is expected to meet the EU's stricter content censorship rules, although there are doubts about whether the platform is large enough and qualified.

For Mr Musk, this means that his streamlined company will be subject to a more intrusive regulatory system and could face hefty fines of up to 6 per cent of the company's revenues or even banned from operating in Europe if it fails to comply with the rules. At the same time, the EU will avoid the embarrassment of one of the world's most influential platforms evading its control of online content.

Regardless of size, technology companies must abide by the basic rules of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) and remove illegal content in the 27 countries of the European Union. Platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users will be identified as very large online platforms, known as VLOPs (very large online platforms), and will face more intense scrutiny by the EU enforcement agency in Brussels.

Some EU officials worry that Twitter may not have enough users to be identified as VLOP, allowing Mr Musk to circumvent the most significant change in EU content censorship rules. At the end of October, before Mr Musk bought the social media site, some insiders thought the company would not meet the threshold of 45 million users because the UK had left the EU, according to former employees familiar with the matter.

Even so, the company is preparing to be identified as VLOP and plans to conduct an internal audit to ensure it complies with DSA rules, according to people familiar with the matter. Employees expect the number of users to grow and worry that if there are less than 45 million monthly active users, it may affect their reputation among advertisers.

Now, Twitter seems likely to reach the 45 million user threshold, in part because Brussels is considering a broader definition of active users, which could include visitors to the site as well as registered and logged-in users. This will greatly increase the number of Twitter users in Europe.

Social media sites must report their number of users in the EU by February 17, after which enforcement agencies must determine which sites are VLOPs. The identified companies must comply with DSA regulations by September 1.

Platforms designated as VLOP must submit annual reports to the European Commission showing that they have enough content reviewers in Europe and are restricting the spread of false information. In addition, these platforms must also open up their own algorithms for inspection by regulators, such as those that determine what appears at the top of people's information flows. The administration can force companies to change their algorithms or raid their offices. If they do not comply with these rules, the European Commission may impose huge fines or even ban these companies from operating in the EU.

For months, Mr Musk has been trying to reassure the European Commission that he will take the EU's content review rules seriously. After a recent video call with Thierry Thierry Breton, the EU's internal market commissioner, Mr Musk tweeted that his goals were "information transparency, accountability and accuracy" consistent with the EU. He pointed out that Twitter's "community notes" (Community Notes) function is a step in this direction, which allows users to check facts on the service.

Mr Musk also often changes his mind, and his relationship with US regulators has been controversial. His concerns about Twitter's massive layoffs and frequent changes to the platform's rules have worried EU and US lawmakers interested in Twitter's data and privacy practices.

Mr Bretton said in a statement last week that Twitter was expected to comply with DSA, but that "the coming months will be the key to turning promises into reality".

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