Josep Borrel attacks Elon Musk for misinformation on Twitter

The issues that affect everyone are increasingly present in Europe and its laws, as has happened with some who will besiege micropayments and loot boxes in mobile games. Now the debate is open due to one of the latest decisions made by Elon Musk on Twitter: limit free access to your API.

[Elon Musk te va a pagar por usar Twitter, esto es lo que tienes que hacer para recibir dinero]

The Twitter API in question

The action taken by Twitter on February 9, at the end of free access to its APIs, has drawn open criticism from one of the most popular diplomats currently in the European Union.

It was Josep Borrell, who dropped that this decision to shut down free access to the Twitter API could become a challenge to researchers’ ability to study misinformation at critical times; just as it is happening now with the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Borrell tried to make clear that it is important that Twitter APIs have free access, so that investigations can be carried out into the extent to which social media platforms are used to disseminate information from the Kremlin.

Josep Borrell was not at all careful in his statements and quoted Elon Musk and Twitter. The European Union is concerned about the changes that have been made and the way in which it is moving away from commitments assumed by Twitter. To better understand each other, these commitments refer to how the micromessaging social network is a signatory to the EU code of practice on disinformation.

In other words, Twitter has been legally bound to ensure that its platform is not a space where Russian media can freely launch their messages. And it is that any freedom that can be given, by not blocking these media, could mean a possible ban on the social network in European territory.

You must take the necessary measures

Borrell, via TechCrunch, insisted on the need to take appropriate measures to protect European democracies from misinformation. One would be a greater investment in studying the channels used by foreign “infoOps” (which are nothing more than information operations from such channels).

They would have new techniques thanks to the use of new technologies that make it possible to create fake videos and images for the purpose of disseminating anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Social networks are one of the means of passing such messages to a large number of people, so the intentions would be to provide the necessary tools to identify these contents.

The problem is that it’s not as easy as it might be on paper, because censoring the freedom offered by a social network could be counterproductive. Although a flood of manufactured disinformation is clearly a challenge to democratic freedom of expression. In fact, one of Borrell’s sentences shows the goal of these disinformation networks: to make anyone believe in something.

For this reason, he went on to explain the importance of not coming to this, as the ordinary person cannot distinguish between what is true and what is a lie. A space of uncertainty that transforms reflection into something easy to conduct if these disinformation operations fulfill their initial mission.

Borrell insists

The bottom line is that Twitter currently, under orders from Musk, maintains a signer of the European Union Disinformation Code of Practice. The problem is that the decisions Musk made went in the exact opposite direction.

An example is the freedom that Twitter’s blue mark now implies by allowing anyone who, on condition of paying, to identify themselves in this way on the social network. This attack on Musk de Borrell is the most direct confrontation led by the European Union. Now remains to be seen the response from Musk, who will surely take his time to answer.

Finally, Borrell reappointed Twitter and Elon Musk so that all the obligations they have assumed are honored. In any case, just yesterday, the owner of the social network clarified that he was going to allow API access to these generators of good content, referring to the same bots. Even if he is still expected to speak up to find out what path he will take regarding the use of APIs by researchers to block the way to disinformants.

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Filed under Elon Musk, Josep Borrell, Twitter, European Union (EU)

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