Elon Musk invited to talk about $44 billion Twitter deal in UK Parliament

Musk’s plan to shop for Twitter has frightened policymakers all over the world.

Joe Skipper | Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been invited to testify within the U.Okay. Parliament about his deal to shop for Twitter for $44 billion.

Julian Knight, who chairs the parliamentary committee on virtual, tradition, media and game, despatched Musk a letter soliciting for that he seem prior to lawmakers to talk about the proposal “in additional intensity.”

“At a time when social media corporations face the possibility of tighter laws all over the world, we are willing to be told extra about how Mr Musk will stability his transparent dedication to loose speech with new tasks to give protection to Twitter’s customers from on-line harms,” Knight mentioned in a observation Wednesday.

A Tesla consultant was once no longer straight away to be had for remark when contacted by way of CNBC.

Musk’s plan to shop for Twitter has frightened policymakers all over the world because of considerations that the arena’s richest guy will loosen up restrictions on what customers can say or proportion at the social media platform.

Within the U.Okay., the federal government is eager to push thru new regulations that will impose an obligation of care on on-line platforms to take on destructive and unlawful content material.

Referred to as the On-line Protection Invoice, the regulation would permit the media watchdog Ofcom to levy fines of as much as 10% of an organization’s world annual earnings for violations. Tech executives additionally face imaginable prison time for repeated failure to cooperate with regulators.

The Ecu Union’s incoming Virtual Services and products Act, in the meantime, would drive Giant Tech platforms to extra impulsively pull unlawful content material and merchandise from their products and services. Final week, EU officers warned Musk he should play by way of the foundations if he’s to take over Twitter.

It isn’t the primary time a billionaire tech boss has been requested to look prior to the U.Okay. Parliament. In 2018, lawmakers summoned Fb CEO Mark Zuckerberg to wait a listening to on disinformation and the Cambridge Analytica information privateness scandal, a request that he refused.