Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European democracies are confronting a new online influence and disinformation threat \u2014 not from autocracies such as Russia, but emanating from the US. Elon Musk, the X owner and Donald Trump ally, is using his network to denigrate leaders he dislikes and promote far-right views and politicians. Meta\u2019s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meanwhile shifting to a Musk-style approach that prioritises \u201cfree speech\u201d over independent fact-checking on his Facebook and Instagram platforms. European leaders may fear that if they clash with these US billionaires in trying to safeguard their democracies, they could now face retribution from the White House itself.The power conferred by Musk\u2019s immense wealth and social media reach has been amplified by his closeness to the US president-elect. The X boss seems intent on political rabble-rousing abroad. He has backed the far-right AfD party ahead of German elections and will on Thursday host a livestream with its chancellor candidate Alice Weidel. He has baselessly accused UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer of being \u201ccomplicit in mass rapes\u201d \u2014 referring to a decade-old scandal over child rape gangs \u2014 viciously smeared a female minister, and called to release a jailed hard-right activist. He asked his 211mn X followers whether the US should liberate the UK from its \u201ctyrannical government\u201d.Meta\u2019s Zuckerberg is not, so far, using his platforms to promote his own or extremist views. But replacing independent fact-checking with X\u2019s model of \u201ccommunity notes\u201d \u2014 relying on users to flag misinformation \u2014 even just in the US raises questions about whether content will be properly policed elsewhere. It also appears a craven attempt to curry favour with Trump after past frictions. As well as aligning explicitly with Musk\u2019s \u2014 and Trump\u2019s \u2014 idea of \u201cfree expression\u201d, the Meta boss said he would work with the incoming president to oppose \u201cinstitutionalised censorship\u201d of online platforms in Europe. That sets up a clash between a laissez-faire approach by US social networks and EU and UK requirements to regulate content.In responding to Musk, in particular, democratic leaders in Europe and elsewhere should avoid a panicked overreaction that plays into his hands. Starmer hit the right note this week by declaring, without naming the X owner, that a \u201cline has been crossed\u201d by those spreading lies and misinformation online. Musk has succeeded, however, in setting the UK political agenda by thrusting a historical scandal, however shocking and iniquitous, artificially back into the spotlight.Some forbearance may also be warranted by the uncertainty over how durable the Musk-Trump friendship will prove; splits are showing in the pro-Trump coalition. A falling-out would somewhat lessen Musk\u2019s clout \u2014 and the risks for politicians elsewhere trying to contain him.European leaders should make clear, nonetheless, that there are rules that Musk\u2019s, and Zuckerberg\u2019s, networks are required to play by. The EU\u2019s Digital Services Act and the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act both threaten hefty fines for big online platforms that fail to curb illicit content, including forms of disinformation. An EU probe last summer issued preliminary findings that Musk\u2019s X breached the DSA in areas including allegedly deceptive techniques to manipulate user behaviour, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.The EU and UK rules are far from perfect. Both jurisdictions need to take care that tech regulation does not, as Zuckerberg charged this week, stifle innovation. But accusations of leftwing bias in European content moderation serve as a smokescreen for the political and personal agendas of Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg. Europe\u2019s democratic values are so fundamental that its leaders should not shy from enforcing rules designed to protect them \u2014 even if that risks clashing with the X or Meta bosses, or the returning US president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European democracies are confronting a new online influence and disinformation threat \u2014 not from autocracies such as Russia, but emanating from the US. Elon Musk, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-158301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}