this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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Do you think an European Citizens' Initiative to ban Twitter in the EU would be beneficial and have a possibility of being successful?

I'm sorry if this is not a good community for this question. If not please point me to one.

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[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 41 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

X does not and will not comply with EU rules, and thus needs to be banned until they change (i.e. indefinitely).

[–] vrojak@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago

I am also fine with escalating fines until the problems are addressed. Say, start with 1000$ and double that every week until they comply, either they do or there'll be a lot of money.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Depends what "ban" means. If it refers to them not being able to be commercially active in the EU because they violate EU regulations, sure. So no selling ads, no targeting ads, no selling blue check-marks.

If it refers to preventing people from the EU to access their website through meddling with DNS or similar means, then i am against it. We should be able to access it, but they shouldnt be able to make money off it in the EU.

[–] ekky@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

I do agree.

Some people might need access to those sites for various reasons (journalists making research, keeping in contact with friends overseas, etc.). But we ought to inform the european population about the dangers of using those services, and preferably move politics and country-specific communication (your local police station social media account) onto european solutions.

Cutting off or limiting the profits which american megacorps can make off the european population does also sound like a good idea.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 23 points 1 month ago

This was the moment where banning twitter turned from a good idea into a non negotiable measure we need to take asap.

[–] vesi@lemm.ee 20 points 1 month ago

Yes. Freedom of speech? There is no true freedom of speech there so limiting X is not a violation of it

[–] dergewerkschafter@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago

Twitter isnt a social media plattform anymore. Its like truth social a plattform for propaganda. And as we do boycott, bann and so on russian and chinese propaganda, we should ban us propaganda too. I think ith that easy. (:

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

A tiktok ban style law would go against freedom of speech. Better to let the EC and the courts ban Twitter based on the existing, sensible DSA law.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

will they do it though?

[–] WheelcharArtist@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Banning a platform doesn't take the right to speak freely

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, that's what the DSA says.

But it's not ok to ban a website just because there was a petition for it, there needs to be a better reason than that.

[–] turtl@lemm.ee 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fuck Twitter but not sure a ban would be a good thing

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Banning fascists instead of accomodating them is absolutely the right thing to do. It's accommodating them that got us into this mess.

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[–] Nukul4r@feddit.org 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not a fan of banning sites. This establishes infrastructure, which a future fascist regime could use for their purposes. Better to strengthen local alternatives and let it happen by itself.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

what about restricting use by governments?

people should make choices, governments should be sovereign in as many ways as possible imo… twitter has proven that it’s not an unbiased utility

or perhaps the “primary source of truth” must be elsewhere and may be shared to twitter, but governments must do whatever they can to ensure that citizens primary method of interaction is through sovereign sources - which may mean limited posting to twitter/meta etc, or it may mean marketing

[–] rippersnapper@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Exactly, govt representatives, journalists and newspapers should at the very least start using alternatives like Mastodon and Bluesky. Let Twitter wither away by itself after that.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Twitter actively pushes some content and hides others.
So it's controlling what people see with an editorial decision.
The fact that this decision is made by an algorithm is entirely irrelevant.
Therefore Twitter should be fully responsible for any harm caused by what it publishes, and any illegal content.
They can't claim to be just a platform as long as their algorithm controls what people get to see.

If the EU enforced this, there would be no need to ban Twitter.

[–] hikuro93@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Not a twitter/x or bluesky user, never really my type of preferred social media. So I wouldn't miss it.

However we must realize the most crucial factor about X in Europe, the fact that it's a clearly compromised and biased network, highly subject to corruption, division and disinformation.

Would the average person participate and support X if it was owned by a russian oligarch? And that russian propaganda was quite obvious within the social platform?

Some would, sure, but the majority would mistrust it and be far more critical about potentially false information.

So yeah, it should be categorically banned from EU nations. Not because I hate it, but because of the dangers of division it represents to our society. Specially when for those who like X-style platforms there's already "non-regime" alternatives.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

it kinda is owned by a russian oligarch

[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If the ban brings a new alternative in place, then yes. I'm not from the EU or the USA, but I'm used to Mastodon and Lemmy. I don't mind non-american alternatives. The EU should have its own competitive social media for the rest of the world.

[–] tfm@europe.pub 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, as I understand it, Bluesky has an identical algorithm with Twitter. Ive lost patience with how American-led technology has taken the world's attention for granted. What I had when I was on Bluesky was reading the same information being viraled and repeated, and the same prominent users from Twitter absorbing almost all of my attention. Bluesky promoting the same users since 2010 made the world smaller for me and I'd rather be on Mastodon where smaller creators are somewhat boosted. Moreover, spaces on Lemmy are teaching me a lot about the European Union, and since I'm an outsider and I don't live in the west, I deeply enjoy being educated rather than sensationalized with the same conspiracy theory. I firmly believe there's a larger world than what an American-led algorithm often portrays. But, I acknowledge that everyone is different and I understand that they might still have preferences that are different to mine. Nonetheless, I still want an algorithm that actually shows me niche topics all around the world.

[–] tfm@europe.pub 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The cool thing on bluesky is that you can create your own algorithms through custom feeds. Also to my knowledge the following feed is purely chronological.

It's surely not as decentralized and free as Mastodon but it's heck of a lot better than the centralized platforms.

[–] iamkindasomeone@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is there something against an approach where we only store data, like we did for the last centuries. But how the data is aggregated and presented is not defined. There could be various frontends using different (public) algorithms. This could work pretty easy with decentralised networks like the fediverse.

[–] tfm@europe.pub 1 points 1 month ago

Isn't that exactly the way Bluesky/ATprotocol works? You can store your account/data wherever your want (PDS) and the Relays/Firehorses are responsible to aggregate posts.

I also like ActivityPub more but Bluesky is definitely easier to use.

[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

I think I'll check it out again at some point.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

this has been done in a few countries but running a government mastodon instance and giving departments and official accounts profiles… i kinda love that, but wish mastodon supported domains like bsky does

id love to have like education@gov.au, treasury@gov.au, etc but afaik the way mastodon works is you need to devote an entire domain to it, so they’d have to be like treasury@social.gov.au, which is kinda verbose :(

[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

True. That's unfortunate, i feel that.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm an American so maybe the rest of you won't agree with me, but I think the idea is great. We should also ban it here in the US, in Australia, and Mexico, and Canada and, really, the whole world.

[–] nuko147@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I don't like the idea of banning social media, newspapers, books, or news websites. Even if they go downhill like twitter. Just opting out and ignoring them, will do. If many do it, it will collapse by itself. But there must be a good alternative and that is difficult.

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[–] Mysterious_Tea@feddit.org 9 points 1 month ago

Can I answer: "Yes" loudly enough?

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 9 points 1 month ago

I would rather the users all realize it's a nazi bar and stop using it, but that's never going to happen. Too many people are oblivious, don't care, or are pro-nazi. Shutting down the nazi bar with the power of the state is acceptable to me.

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago
[–] cherrari@feddit.org 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The main issue with Twitter is that we will never be able to prove that the algorithms are not manipulating users by shaping a certain narrative. Combine this with the unsettling events of recent months and I feel like we have no other choice than banning this platform in the free world.

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[–] tfm@europe.pub 5 points 1 month ago
[–] chmod755@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago

I'd prefer tariffs on Twitter and Tesla in all EU nations until the Trump tariffs are removed --> income should be used to fund European social media and European car production

[–] civilconvo@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

Banning shitter - sounds okay to me

[–] paolo3000@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

I’d be in favour of this. I think we’ve seen how fickle the masses are. They need to be shielded from the fake, toxic shit that is social media

[–] KokusnussRitter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not a fully formed opinion yet; but since X is ran in a way that encourages populism, misinformation and extremism, yeah. Maybe it could make it harder for extremists to connect and recruit new people. But if that is the goal, banning X is not enough. Platforms like Telegram are also popular for harboring extremists. So it would probably need a widespread effort across public platforms to be regulated and better moderated.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the difference is that telegram is a chat application rather than a public space. i've been on telegram for 10 years at this point and i've never gotten so much as an invite from people i don't know. the owner is iffy so my friend group is trying to migrate away but none of us have ever seen the things telegram is famous for. i'm not even sure i know how to get shit like that to show up. on twitter it's in your face as soon on you log in.

You make a good point. I also used Telegram some years ago and never gotten invites to questionable channels, although I think you can search for channels in the app. But another way to learn about them is through influencers advertising them on social media like Twitter, facebook, insta etc. which brings us full circle xD

on twitter it's in your face

I wrote a lengthy paragraph and realized that I don't know how bad it is, and how to act accordingly. I agree with another person saying, that they are against bans on media. Maybe the EU could offer a compromise: Abide by some fancy schmancy laws that address content moderation or get lost. But then again, I do not trust politicians in the EU parliament to a) understand the technology and it's limitations b) be interested in this, since there are many conservatives who could actually benefit from twitter being in the state it's in.

[–] UngratefulLilToad@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

There are still some ways to use banned apps and programmes. Besides it takes away opportunity of making your own decisions and creates the atmosphere of censorship.

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