EU officials have slapped down their internal market commissioner, accusing him of going rogue over a letter he posted to Elon Musk on his social media site X.
Thierry Breton posted a letter to the platform shortly before Musk interviewed Donald Trump on the platform, warning the Telsa boss against the possible “amplification of harmful content”.
The French commissioner urged Musk to “ensure X’s compliance” with EU law, including the Digital Services Act, adopted in 2022 to address a number of issues including disinformation.
However, the European Commission reacted with fury to Breton’s unsanctioned intervention, saying his letter had not been approved by Ursula von der Leyen.
“The timing and the wording of the letter were neither co-ordinated or agreed with the president nor with the [commissioners],” it said.
Another EU official told the Financial Times that Breton was a law unto himself, saying: “Thierry has his own mind and way of working and thinking.”
The European Commission has been investigating X since last year over allegations of non-compliance with its Digital Services Act, which attempts to control the growing power of social media platforms.
As internal market commissioner, Breton is responsible for enforcing the Act and can communicate independently with companies.
There is a growing fear in Europe about the spread of disinformation on X and other social media platforms, which critics blame for fuelling far-right sentiment within the EU.
The EU said in a statement on Tuesday that its investigation into X was ongoing.
“The [investigation] on dissemination of illegal content and information manipulation is ongoing, we are looking into it, and of course everything that happens on the platform feeds into this assessment,” they said.
“The response of X to the management of this type of content is taken into account in the course of the investigation.”
Officials close to Breton said the letter had ben planned for some time and that the interview provided the perfect opportunity to publish it.
Musk responded to the letter from Breton with a meme from the 2008 film Tropic Thunder, that showed one character yelling: “Take a big step back and literally fuck your own face.”
Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, urged the EU to “mind their own business instead of trying to meddle in the US presidential election”.
