Social-Media Regulations Expand Globally as Elon Musk Plans Twitter Takeover

Mr. Musk, whose $44 billion bid to buy Twitter was accepted last month, signaled Monday that his plans for the platform would be compatible with the EU’s new rules. The

Tesla Inc.

TSLA -2.31%

chief executive recorded a video alongside Europe’s commissioner for the internal market,

Thierry Breton,

which was posted to Mr. Breton’s Twitter account.

“I think we’re very much of the same mind,” Mr. Musk said after discussing the incoming rules with Mr. Breton at a Tesla factory in Austin, Texas. “Anything that my companies can do that would be beneficial to Europe, we want to do that.”

How content-moderation rules would work at Twitter under Mr. Musk remains unclear. He has indicated he feels the platform has at times overreached. On Tuesday, he said he would reverse a 2021 decision to ban

Donald Trump’s

personal Twitter account. He called the move a “morally bad decision” and said permanent bans undermine trust in the company.

“If there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should be either deleted or made invisible, and a suspension—a temporary suspension—is appropriate, but not a permanent ban,” Mr. Musk said.

Mr. Musk has suggested in recent weeks that any policy changes would be in line with local laws, writing on Twitter on Monday that his preference is “to hew close to the laws of countries” in which the company operates. “If the citizens want something banned, then pass a law to do so, otherwise it should be allowed,” he wrote.

The EU’s Digital Services Act, which was agreed to by lawmakers in April, would compel platforms to swiftly address illegal content and offer a process for users to complain if they disagree with moderation decisions. Major platforms would also have to show regulators they are taking steps to deal with the risks that certain legal content presents.

The legislation was introduced after some EU countries had already brought in their own regulatory changes. Germany, for example, has for several years required platforms to quickly remove illegal content, including hate speech, or face large fines.

Fines for violating the EU’s new rules can reach up to 6% of a major platform’s global revenue once the legislation comes into effect. Repeated, serious infractions could result in a ban on operating in the EU, according to lawmakers who were involved in the final deal.

Similar legislation has also been proposed in the U.K. The U.K.’s Online Safety Bill, in addition to imposing new rules for dealing with illegal content, seeks to compel major online platforms to address specific categories of content in their terms and conditions, such as material that encourages self-harm or eating disorders.

A new law in Australia goes further, allowing an eSafety commissioner to order platforms to remove certain content or face a fine. The law, which came into force in January, gives the commissioner authority to demand that online service providers remove abusive or seriously harmful content within 24 hours once they are provided formal notice. Otherwise, a platform can be fined up to 555,000 Australian dollars, the equivalent of roughly $385,000.

“We will be keeping a close watch and making sure that Twitter and other platforms are taking the steps required under Australian law to address online safety issues,” Australia eSafety Commissioner

Julie Inman Grant

said.

In India, the government last year unveiled a new set of guidelines requiring social-media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to set up systems for resolving user complaints about online postings. Platforms also need to provide contact information to the government for in-house grievance officers.

Twitter has clashed repeatedly with India’s government in the past, including over a government request to restore a ban on accounts linked to tweets about farmers’ protests that the government said were inflammatory. The company said at the time it would again block many of the accounts, but only within India. It also said the restrictions wouldn’t apply to journalists, media entities, activists and politicians because it believed that doing so would violate their right to free expression under Indian law.

Indian police visited Twitter’s office in New Delhi in 2021 to investigate the company’s labeling of tweets from a ruling-party spokesman as misleading.

Freedom House, a nonprofit group focused on human rights and civil liberties, said in a recent report that while some of the Indian government’s new rules have the potential to improve platforms’ communication with users about content moderation, others could make it harder for companies to challenge government requests that amount to censorship.

In the U.S., lawmakers have put forward multiple proposals for dealing with online content, though few have advanced amid debates over freedom of expression and censorship. One bill, introduced in February, seeks to compel companies to assess how algorithms and other digital features might contribute to harm to children.

Canada’s government has also pledged to introduce legislation to address online content such as hate speech and child exploitation. It recently created an expert panel to provide advice after an earlier proposal was widely criticized.

Mr. Breton, the European commissioner, said in an interview Tuesday that the EU’s legislation seeks to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online, while preserving users’ freedom of speech. He said Mr. Musk indicated during their discussion that he was “fully aligned” with the EU’s approach, including requirements for companies to make algorithms more transparent and to provide a process for handling complaints before a user can be banned permanently.

He added that Mr. Musk also said he understood and respected the need to have enough content moderators in Europe to ensure their work can be done in different European languages.

“He was very comfortable with our approach and what we did,” Mr. Breton said.

—Rajesh Roy contributed to this article.

Write to Kim Mackrael at [email protected] and Rhiannon Hoyle at [email protected]