Yes, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly clear that even in the EU, billionaires and their companies are above the law. The legal situation should be clear here and there should be consequences - but there apparently aren’t any.
Unfortunately, this applies not only to Twitter, but to most US tech giants in particular, to meta, for example. I have already stopped counting the massive violations of the GDPR that meta and others are constantly committing, because nothing happens anyway. If anything, the fines are so low that violating the law brings these companies far more revenue than it costs them.
So unfortunately, the same major issue that brought the US to the brink of a straight up dictatorship also applies in Europe: even the most blatant violations of the law have no serious consequences for the richest of the rich – and that is why billionaires are becoming more and more powerful.
The situation may be better in the EU for now than in the US, whose legal system obviously no longer even maintains the appearance of fairness, but even in the EU, the enforcement of the law is miles away from anything that could even remotely be called justice.
The reason seems to me to be the same as in the US: concentration of power in a tiny billionaire class that asserts its influence through corruption.
I think that if things continue like this, and I see no indicators that they will not, it will not be long before even the appearance of justice is abandoned in the EU as well.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I think if any other (smaller) site were continually posting CSAM without moderation, it would be banned. What’s different about X? The fact that Elon Musk runs it and he’s in with a powerful dictator?
At some point you have to admit the CSAM is not the problem, it’s the person running it, whether they have the power to stop you/fight back or not.
fernandofig@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
The fact that, since it’s sadly still one of the largest social outlets, there’s a whole economy around it. If Europe banned X tomorrow, a lot of people and companies would take a non-negligible hit to their revenue. We can argue that probably these people are not a majority of the other half of people in Europe that don’t want X gone, but in the end, politicians and lawmakers care about money and (in a very distant second place) what the majority of their constituents say.
pycorax@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I wonder how feasible it would be if they’d announce a deadline whereby it would be blocked and recommend people and business to move onto a federated alternative.
IratePirate@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Care to back up that claim? What exactly is Twitter’s contribution to their bottom line that they cannot live without?
otter@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
They wouldn’t suddenly ban it though.
Any ban would roll in without enough time for people to switch away. Twitter doesn’t do anything special that can’t be replicated elsewhere.
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
not just banned, but there would be criminal charges brought on the owners.
Musk should be prosecuted for distribution of CSAM.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Absolutely. And soliciting Epstein for sex with minors. Let’s not forget about that. He was begging to get on the island and get some underage tail. It was pretty pathetic.
He should be held liable, but he won’t be. Not by people who do the same thing.
General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
On what legal grounds would that happen?
bold_atlas@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Confiscate every server uses as evidence.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve read (on sites like Ars Technica that cover technology) about dark web sites trading CSAM being shut down. By the FBI in America, by Interpol in the EU… I don’t know what legal grounds they use to do it.
You don’t think CSAM should be illegal? Or you genuinely don’t understand why it is, or what law it breaks?
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
depends on the country, but the same framework as an individual spreading CSAM.
Musk should be treated like the pedo he is.