Twitter lost its last remaining employees in the regulatory office of Bruxelles, just now that Musk’s company will face growing scrutiny from European lawmakers. According to what the Financial Timesthe office of six employees has been reduced to two in recent weeks following the dramatic wave of layoffs undertaken by Elon Musk. The remaining two members left last week, after Musk asked staff to engage in a “hardcore work culture“.
The Brussels office was a major hub for Twitter to grapple with the deluge of European regulations, many of which have recently come into effect. The social media platform was recently accused of not handling misinformation and hate speech well.
European regulators call on Twitter to comply with European rules
In light of the office closures, European regulators and officials have asked Twitter to keep up with regulatory requests. Shortly after the announcement of the conclusion of the deal from 44 billion dollars for the purchase of the company by Musk, the European Commissioner, Thierry Breton sent a warning to the new owner, urging the company to “respect our rules”.
The EU’s Digital Services Act gives governments more power to enforce rules governing how tech companies moderate content and to decide when they should remove illegal content.
If Musk fails to comply with European regulation, Twitter will face fines of up to 6% of annual sales and could even be banned from EU territory.
Meanwhile in the United States, a group of Democratic senators have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) US to investigate whether Twitter violated consumer protection laws or its consent decree under Musk’s ownership.
Recall that Musk recently reinstated the former US president on Twitter, Donald Trump. Just over 15 million Twitter users voted in the poll organized by Elon Musk and 51.8% were in favor of reinstatement. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted. Trump’s Twitter account, which had more than 88 million followers before being banned on January 8, 2021, began racking up followers and by 10pm on Saturday had nearly 100,000.