Mathias Vermeulen

Now: Director @A__W______O/ VUB. Then: EU Parliament + UN @[email protected]

[Mathias Vermeulen @mathver]

Find me on Bluesky: @mathver.bsky.social

[French Response @FrenchResponse]

👋 VPN guy

[IISS News @IISS_org]

The IISS has produced the most comprehensive open-source database currently available on Russian sabotage operations across Europe and its periphery. It captures the full spectrum of activity with physical effects: from sabotage on undersea cables to GPS blocking across multiple domains and geographies.

Find out more from Charlie Edwards and Nate Seidenstein:

➡️ https://t.co/LezP3texeX

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

X didn’t liberate speech.
It monetized disinformation.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

"Digital gulag" 😂 😂 😂

He really called EU that while being from a country where almost all Western social media platforms are banned, including the one he posts on 😁

[Adam Schiff @SenAdamSchiff]

This is yet another chilling example of how far the Trump administration will go in service of his billionaire enablers.

Hate speech and harm to kids online have exploded, and now the administration is targeting those working to combat it.

Their greed knows no bounds.

[Pablo Pérez @PabloPerezA]

Elon Musk on the Digital Services Act (2022): "I think it's exactly aligned with my thinking. I very much agree with (...) I really think, I agree with everything you (@ThierryBreton) said, really. We are very much of the same mind"

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

There is a something deeply hilarious when a senior official from Russia — where X, Instagram and most other American platforms are banned, and where even googling for information about items undesirable to the regime is a criminal offense — postures as a defender of free speech.

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

The US criticises Europe for lack of free speech - the same US where this week the most famous news programme on CBS, now owned by a Trump supporter, pulls a report critical about Trump's key policy

[Julian Röpcke 🇩🇪🤝🇺🇦 @JulianRoepcke]

Unglaublich. Die USA verhängen Sanktionen gegen Deutsche, die sich gegen Desinformation einsetzen.
Damit landet die Trump-Regierung auf russischem Niveau, wo ebenfalls deutsche Medien als extremistische Organisationen sanktioniert und verboten werden.

[Tom Malinowski @Malinowski]

Just to be clear -- Marco Rubio is banning the leaders of an organization called the Center for Countering Digital Hate for the "crime" of publishing a top-12 list of anti-vaxxers online.

The Center also flags content that is antisemitic or harmful to children.

[Mathias Vermeulen @mathver]

Last but not least, X can go and challenge any EC decision at the Court of Justice. It probably will. And it probably will lose.

[Mathias Vermeulen @mathver]

Today’s 120 million euro fine from the EU against X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) will be spun as a decision againt “free speech.” It’s not. https://t.co/HaZmiOUg3M

[Mathias Vermeulen @mathver]

This is not the end of the road. X can still change some of these things to end the infringements. If it doesn't, periodic penalty payments are up.