Xitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have signed on to a European Union agreement to prevent and remove hate speech from their platforms, which seems meaningless, because all of their CEOs and founders were at Trump’s inauguration today.
If you’ve been doing everything you can do to avoid Trump inauguration news today, be aware that there has been a kerfuffle over Elon Musk making what sure looked like a “Heil Hitler” Nazi salute during his speech. (It is below, it's not really up for much debate.) Musk is at the inauguration, as is the CEO of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, and CEO of Youtube parent company Google, Sundar Pichai. So the possibly debatable Nazi gesture among an enclave of the world’s wealthiest billionaire oligarchs is something of a troubling sign.
Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on national television.
— Anna Horford (@AnnaHorford) January 20, 2025
Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on national television.
Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on national television.
Elon Musk just did a Nazi salute on national television. pic.twitter.com/dGdlPRWRMn
Yet the billionaire oligarchs would argue that everything is fine, and their companies are squeaky-clean from any form of destruction of democracy or creeping fascism. The Verge reports that Musk’s Twitter/X, and the above-mentioned Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube have signed on to an enhanced European Union (EU) code of conduct to fight online hate speech.
According to The Verge, “The revised code commits signatories to transparency around hate speech detection and reduction, to allowing third-party monitors to assess how hate speech notices are reviewed by the platforms, and to review ‘at least two-thirds of hate speech notices’ within 24 hours.”
Other recognized tech companies signing on to the agreement include TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Dailymotion, and Microsoft-hosted platforms.
“Hatred and polarisation are threats to EU values and fundamental rights and undermine the stability of our democracies. The internet is amplifying the negative effects of hate speech,” EU Commissioner Michael McGrath said in a statement. “We trust this Code of conduct+ will do its part in ensuring a robust response.”
Yes, they put a little plus-sign on the end of “Code of conduct+,” like it was Disney+ or ESPN+.
That said, the agreement is completely non-binding, and the companies are free to just back out without consequence. After all, Musk’s Twitter/X has already backed out of similar agreements on disinformation codes of conduct.
And this this code of conduct would seem to contradict what Zuckerberg just said two weeks ago was Meta's new policy on hate speech, which is basically that they're going to pull back and stop being so proscriptive as a company, so that they make fewer "mistakes" that seem like censorship. Specifically, Zuckerberg's statement said the company would stop calling it hate speech when homophobes and transphobes call homosexuality and trans identities mental illnesses.
But maybe racism is still not okay?
Image: WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 20: Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during an inauguration event at Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
