Elon Musk Says He Has No Intention of Pulling Out

He's not mad. Don't put in the newspaper that he's mad.

Not So Fast

Contrary to media rumors, Elon Musk insists he is not going to pull out... of Europe. We mentioned that in the headline, right?

The admission comes after Insider reported that the owner of X-formerly-Twitter had been considering making the social network inaccessible in the European Union over disinformation compliance issues with the international body's Digital Services Act.

In response, the father of at least 11 said in a tweet that he had no intention of pulling out. He slammed Insider's reporting, based on purported insider sources who claimed to have heard him discuss the option of blocking X in Europe, as "utterly false," and that the website is "not a real publication."

In spite of claiming to be "exactly aligned" with the DSA's anti-disinformation platform during a May 2022 discussion with EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton, the two men have publicly sparred in the interim. That fighting came to a head last week when the pair got into a protracted and public back-and-forth over a DSA investigation into the platform's lack of disinformation enforcement as violence between Israel and Hamas began to escalate.

This latest squabble began when Breton posted an "urgent letter" on X, directed at Musk and highlighting the platform's rampant disinformation about the conflict. The letter charged X with enabling "illegal content and disinformation in the EU" and gave its owner 24 hours to respond.

Musk was, as one might expect, not pleased with the threat. He ultimately became defensive and claimed that he didn't know what disinformation Breton was referencing.

Money Walks

As the Insider article that so offended the X owner claims, pulling out of Europe would save the site quite a lot of money in fines if the EU decides to hit it with any sizable penalties — penalties that would make it very difficult to become profitable in 2024 the way its new CEO wants.

It would also, however, significantly shrink its already-declining user base — even if Europe only accounts for nine percent of X's global monthly users, as the Apptopia analytics firm told Insider.

Stuck between curbing his free speech warriorship to appease bureaucrats and losing even more money on Twitter than he has already, Musk's claim seems to be that the real disinformation is happening in the pages of Insider — and damnit, he's not owned.

More on MuskX: Elon Musk Planning to Charge Users $1 to Tweet