This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I think if any other (smaller) site were continually posting CSAM without moderation, it would be banned. What's different about X? The fact that Elon Musk runs it and he's in with a powerful dictator?
At some point you have to admit the CSAM is not the problem, it's the person running it, whether they have the power to stop you/fight back or not.
What's different about X?
Well, you kind of said it yourself: The fact that, since it's sadly still one of the largest social outlets, there's a whole economy around it. If Europe banned X tomorrow, a lot of people and companies would take a non-negligible hit to their revenue. We can argue that probably these people are not a majority of the other half of people in Europe that don't want X gone, but in the end, politicians and lawmakers care about money and (in a very distant second place) what the majority of their constituents say.
I wonder how feasible it would be if they'd announce a deadline whereby it would be blocked and recommend people and business to move onto a federated alternative.
You and I both know people, politicians, journalists would just move to Threads before they move to the fedi or Bluesky or any FOSS alternative.
They want an algorithm.
If Europe banned X tomorrow, a lot of people and companies would take a non-negligible hit to their revenue.
Care to back up that claim? What exactly is Twitter's contribution to their bottom line that they cannot live without?
I mean, it's obvious, the reach.
Big follower count = More Reach = More people likely to click the links in your posts or contact you
And that can be done elsewhere, but would require basically starting again from scratch, a big risk for a lot of corporations, and a big risk for independent creators (especially smut creators)
Tbh, I very much doubt that the bottom lines of, say, Dassault, BMW, Metro, or UBS would even budge if Twitter were to self-ignite over night, and their Twitter accounts with it. They're (still) on this dumpster fire of a platform because "everybody is" and some bellend in marketing thinks it impossible not to do what all the others are doing. I'd argue no consumer cares what the Twitter account of Tesco's has or hasn't been posting this week, and it has zero effect on their purchasing decisions there.
"Self-employed creators", aka influencers, aka people shilling products while pretending to be your friend, might be affected more because they lack any non-virtual connection to their "customers" But then again, we could ask ourselves if these provide any real-world value and should exist in the first place.
not just banned, but there would be criminal charges brought on the owners.
Musk should be prosecuted for distribution of CSAM.
Absolutely. And soliciting Epstein for sex with minors. Let's not forget about that. He was begging to get on the island and get some underage tail. It was pretty pathetic.
He should be held liable, but he won't be. Not by people who do the same thing.
Yes, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly clear that even in the EU, billionaires and their companies are above the law. The legal situation should be clear here and there should be consequences - but there apparently aren't any.
Unfortunately, this applies not only to Twitter, but to most US tech giants in particular, to meta, for example. I have already stopped counting the massive violations of the GDPR that meta and others are constantly committing, because nothing happens anyway. If anything, the fines are so low that violating the law brings these companies far more revenue than it costs them.
So unfortunately, the same major issue that brought the US to the brink of a straight up dictatorship also applies in Europe: even the most blatant violations of the law have no serious consequences for the richest of the rich – and that is why billionaires are becoming more and more powerful.
The situation may be better in the EU for now than in the US, whose legal system obviously no longer even maintains the appearance of fairness, but even in the EU, the enforcement of the law is miles away from anything that could even remotely be called justice.
The reason seems to me to be the same as in the US: concentration of power in a tiny billionaire class that asserts its influence through corruption.
I think that if things continue like this, and I see no indicators that they will not, it will not be long before even the appearance of justice is abandoned in the EU as well.
Edit: Here is an example of how this is possible - it's just plain old corruption, but in the highest ranks of our institutions: From Meta to the EU Parliament: Former chief lobbyist negotiates data protection (German article)
Aura Salla was Meta's chief lobbyist in Brussels for many years. Her task: to convince politicians to weaken EU digital rules such as data protection in order to generate even higher profits with Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
How about we just fine them to oblivion and make the people responsible answer for their crimes?
How about we start throwing executives into jail starting with the top and working the way down?
Shouldn't they want it banned because it already broke the law? How many lines have to be crossed before anyone does anything?
Anarchism for the rich(law does not affect them), rugged police state for the poor,
I’m not clicking the link to read this but these sort of headlines are often a result of their survey intentionally wording things like this to spin the narrative. Anyone who does in fact want it banned immediately would still say yes to the question. I’d suspect there are many such folks across Europe.
I'd rather not see a great firewall of Europe.
I'd be happy to see them banned from doing business here though. Hit them where it hurts, their money.
Yes, I wish they would ban Tesla cars in Europe. That would be amazing.
There are an outrageous amount of Tesla vehicles in Lisbon. But there are some beautiful Chinese brands that are now undercutting them. With I think Forthing as a direct competitor.
Weird to be that low for "continues to break the law."
They'll immediately ban "from the river to the sea" and prosecute everyone who says/displays it. but a multinational corporation is just allowed to break the law and maybe the politicians will at some point allowed them to face the law.
i want it banned even if it doesnt
I want it banned regardless :D
I would like to know the percentage between if they break the law and regardless if they break the law
More than half are ok with any company breaking the law?
According to a new YouGov survey, a vast majority of respondents in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland (60-78%) think that the EU should take further action against X if it does not address breaches to European law brought forward by the Commission last year [1]. The majority of those (62%-73%) who wanted further action – and 47% of total participants – want X to be banned from the EU if it refuses to address these breaches [2]
I say that, in order to save the species, ban all social media, everywhere.
but lemmy :(
You might not realize it, but the Fediverse is social media so a ban would be rather detrimental to this place.
Damn near the entire internet is "social media" but people usually mean "social networking sites".
Nearly half? Sheesh.
Maybe it's because most Europeans don't have a strong opinion about X. I really don't think it's quite as popular here as in the USA. Which is also the reason many don't know how unhinged the current admin is.
A lot of politicians and governments still use it as an official platform. I wish they would stop doing that and giving it any sort of legitimacy.
I want it banned here too.
Ditch it.It will have 0 to none effect of EU. And Mr.NaciSalute won't get broke.Mastodon is the way.
I think you are mistaken. It will have a huge positive impact on the EU.
If X fails to respond to the Commission’s fine, 70% of respondents were supportive of repercussions [3]. Among those, between 17-28% think that further fines should be given to X, between 23-29% believe X should be banned, and the largest segment - between 40-52% of those in favour of repercussions - believe that the Commission should fine and ban the social media service entirely from the EU [4].
Those are rookie numbers.
It should’ve been banned long ago. It’s insanity that, it is not banned yet. There’s so much illegal content through Grok and so much* hatred on X.
