Twitter is closing its Brussels office entirely, raising serious concerns over the social media company's ability to comply with the EU's strict new digital guidelines, The Financial Times has reported.
The Brussels office's closure follows the departure last week of two senior Brussels-based Twitter employees, Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa. They were responsible for ensuring the company's compliance with the bloc's landmark Digital Services Act (DSA): a set of regulations which came into force last week which sets new, strict rules on how tech companies must ensure users' safety online.
Věra Jourová, the European Commission's Vice President for Values and Transparency, informed The Financial Times that she is "concerned about the news of firing such a vast amount of staff of Twitter in Europe", adding: "If you want to effectively detect and take action against disinformation and propaganda, this requires resources."
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The Brussels office's closure further compounds the chaos that has afflicted Twitter ever since Elon Musk, the world's richest man, bought the platform for $44 billion late last month. Shortly after his takeover, Musk fired half of the company's staff (approximately 4,000 jobs) and then, in an abrupt and unexplained reversal, asked for several dozen to come back.
Last week, Twitter temporarily closed its office headquarters in San Francisco after hundreds of employees rejected Musk's offer to stay on at the company only if they committed to an "extremely hardcore" work schedule of "long hours at high intensity".
Both Mozer and La Nasa declined to comment to The Financial Times. No one was available for comment at Twitter.
