Elon Musk called former European Commissioner for Digital Affairs, Frenchman Thierry Breton, a "tyrant of Europe" on Saturday amid a tense online exchange regarding Musk’s support for the German far-right.
In late December, Musk posted on his platform X, of which he is the owner, stating that "only the AfD can save Germany," sparking significant controversy across Europe. Breton labelled the comment as "foreign interference."
Musk retorted, "Man, American ‘foreign interference’ is the only reason you aren’t speaking German or Russian today," referencing the American landings in France during the Second World War.
The dispute reignited this week following an interview Breton gave to the BFMTV/RMC channel, where he said, "Let’s keep calm and enforce our laws in Europe when they are at risk of being circumvented […]. We did it in Romania, and we will obviously do it if necessary in Germany."
On Saturday, Musk responded on X, referring to "the staggering absurdity of Thierry Breton as the tyrant of Europe."
Close to US President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, Musk regularly criticises EU regulations, notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), often resorting to accuse Brussels of censorship. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has aligned himself with this stance. EU officials have pushed back on these false claims.
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. Credit: EC
In response to Musk’s message, Breton, who is not part of the new EU leadership team, wrote on X: "Tyrant of Europe? Wow! But No Elon Musk: the EU has NO mechanism to nullify any election anywhere in EU. Not at all what is said in the video below related only to the application of the DSA and its moderation obligations. Lost in translation... or another fake news?"
Musk had also falsely claimed the EU had tried to stop his interview with German far-right leader of the AfD, to which Breton responded in an interview with the Guardian: "He is lying like hell. Nobody tried to stop him from having a conversation with Trump, nobody is trying to stop him having one in Germany."
This week, the European Commission said it would be monitoring the discussion for evidence of "preferential treatment", but said that there was nothing to stop the online discussion from happening, which it did.
The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has faced formal accusations for several alleged infractions. For each of these, and if it fails to comply, the Commission could fine Musk up to 6% of the annual global turnover of all the companies he controls, amounting to several billion euros.
In December, the European Commission announced an investigation into TikTok, which stands accused of failing its obligations and potentially enabling Russian manipulation in the Romanian presidential election annulled by the constitutional court.
