Moscow has expressed doubts that Twitters new owner Elon Muskwill be able to bring “free speech” to the platform, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Elon Musk bought the social media platform for $44 billion on Monday, proclaiming himself a “free speech absolutist” and pledging to return Twitter to its roots as “the free speech wing of the free speech party.”
RT reports: Dmitry Peskov expressed doubts whether a “full palette” of opinions could be presented on any Western social media.
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
“Russia’s attitude towards this company is based on the actions of this company, on censorship, selective repressive actions against the company’s clients, on the distortion and manipulation of information,” Peskov stated on Thursday.
“There’s a question about whether a full free palette of different points of view is possible on Western social networks. We doubt this.“
“Let’s see what happens under the new owner. Now, given that this is a global company, we have already heard official voices from Europe that they will not allow absolute freedom there,” Peskov added, apparently referring to a warning made by EU Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton to Musk.
The senior EU official cautioned the billionaire against being too lax on content moderation, suggesting the platform could face a ban should it fail to abide by the bloc’s rules. The EU has recently adopted the so-called ‘Digital Services Act’, a package of regulations designed to force social network platforms to police their content much more aggressively and to cooperate closer with regulators.
“We welcome everyone. We are open but on our conditions. At least we know what to tell him: ‘Elon, there are rules. You are welcome but these are our rules. It’s not your rules which will apply here,’” Breton told The Financial Times.
