The Digital Services Act

Mapping the Battle Between Elon Musk and the EU

Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.

---

I’m sure everyone reading this remembers how crazy it was on social media in October of 2020.

People were being banned from Facebook, Twitter—really on all social media sites for stating controversial things that were later fully accepted as the truth by the same media and social media that banned people from saying it originally.

Americans were banned for saying masks don’t work, or the Covid vaccines were, at best, ineffective, at worst dangerous. Any mention of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine being an effective treatment for the Covid symptoms resulted in an immediate ban. People lost their social media accounts for stating the Hunter Biden laptop was real, or for questioning the election results. With two weeks to go until the 2020 elections, anyone with any influence that supported Trump was unable to communicate to the masses … to anyone.

Many thought this was as bad as it could get, but we likely haven’t seen anything yet.

On 12/15/2020, the European Union started planning an act that would—they would want you to believe—“protect Europeans from the dangers that exist on the internet”.

This was in the middle of the Covid narrative that was being used to control the world. It’s obvious to most reading this that they were losing control of the Covid narrative and wanted to get it back. Fining and banning anyone who goes against the official Covid narrative would go a long way toward achieving those ends.

As the Covid narrative started to lose some steam, and the majority of people were no longer living their lives in extreme fear, the “act” was put on the back-burner for a while—not completely abandoned, but accompanied by a temporary lack of urgency. Control through the Covid narrative could still be an effective way to maintain some control, but not to the extent they had hoped for. Too many people were “over” the whole Covid narrative, and they weren’t going to get them back anytime soon.

As I briefly explained, the European Union wanted to create an act (Digital Services Act) that would protect Europeans online. It would protect Europeans from online grifters, hate speech and disinformation. “They” would, of course determine who are grifters and what is hate speech and disinformation. Fines would be followed by bans for repeat offenders. Those regulated would consist of online marketplaces, such as Amazon, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and search engines like Google. The plan was to roll it out first to the big internet tech companies before eventually including everyone else.

In April of 2022, there became an urgency to get the Digital Services Act up and running. You see, Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter on 4/14/2022. On 4/22/2022, eight days later, the policy makers of the European Union reached an agreement on how the DSA would be rolled out and enforced.

On 10/27/2022, Elon Musk officially bought Twitter. On 11/16/2022, twenty days later, DSA rules went into effect.

Early on, it appeared Musk was refusing to comply with the European Union’s voluntary code of practice agreement that was put in place. Does anyone remember how Elon was so diligent in exposing how the FBI and other US government agencies were controlling what was allowed on Twitter? He later said he was going to expose Dr. Fauci as well, but never really delivered on that promise.

As I mentioned earlier, the DSA was to first be rolled out with large online companies. First, there needed to be a way of determining what was a “large online company”. The EU Commission determined this to be a company that reached at least 10% of Europeans, currently 45mm.

On 2/17/2023, online platforms and search engines had to publish their user numbers.

On 4/25/2023, the first designations were made. It was determined who fit into the category of “large companies.” Four months later, regulations on these large companies would go into effect. Four months from 4/25/23 was 8/25/23. Companies like Twitter or X, Facebook, Amazon and Google are now being monitored and regulated by the EU Commission.

On 2/17/2024, the DSA regulations will be rolled out to everyone, big and small … just in time for the political season in Europe and the US.

Companies that are found to be in violation of the EU Commission’s self-determined definition of hate speech, disinformation or fraud will be fined 6% of their global revenue. Repeat offenders will be banned from Europe. If you consider that Twitter or X is on track to produce $3 billion in global revenue this year, that will equate to a $180mm fine if found in violation. Again, a repeat violation would result in a ban, much like how the CCP doesn’t allow many online platforms into China.

Twitter … or what is now known as ‘X.’

According to a Guardian article, Twitter, or X quit the voluntary code of practice agreement early on, but in June of 2023 said it would comply with the rules after a team of EU officials led by the internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, visited its California HQ to “stress test” the company’s moderation and compliance systems.

Breton, the commissioner responsible for enforcing the DSA, welcomed Elon Musk’s change of heart, but warned that there would be “no half measures” when it came to sanctions for online crimes.

After his trip to Musk’s HQ in June, Breton said the EU would be extremely vigilant coming up to the EU elections next year.

“I told Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino [Twitter’s chief executive] that Twitter should be very diligent in preparing to tackle illegal content in the European Union,” Breton said.

“Fighting disinformation, including pro-Russian propaganda, will also be a focus area in particular as we are entering a period of elections in Europe.”

What to make of all of this?

I realize there is a varying degree of alternating support and hatred towards Elon Musk. Some see him as a “white hat”, and others view him as a “black hat”, while others see him as a “grey hat” … once bad, but now good. I tend to see him somewhere in between—“the enemy of my enemy” and a “greyish-white hat”. I don’t think he has always done the right thing, but I can’t ignore how much the Deep State seems to despise him, or the fact that he was the DOD’s (Department of Defense) biggest contractor under Trump. As well, Trump has only gone as far as calling Musk “weird” when appearing to create distance between the two, which is quite tame.

When Musk first bought Twitter, it seemed like he was doing all the right things: he fired woke employees that seemed to be manipulating algorithms, “shadow banning” and banning Trump and Trump supporters from the platform. He handed over information to journalists who exposed how deeply the FBI and State Department were involved in the manipulation of Twitter and social media in general. Musk started to allow many (but not all) Anons and MAGA back onto the platform.

Musk promised to expose more, specifically Dr. Fauci and Big Pharma, but he never delivered on this promise. When he didn’t deliver on this, I thought maybe he had gone after an evil entity that was too big and powerful to expose. This may be the case, but it appears that maybe there is more to the story. The prospect of being fined $180mm and potentially losing access to the whole European Continent has to make a person take a step back and pause.

Lately, I’ve been hearing grumblings from people in the “truth community” about shadow banning and algorithms, and the removal of the “blocking” feature. While Musk appears to be working towards the minimization of bots on X’s platform, there is a lot left to be desired. Yes, X gives you access to a lot more people than a platform like Truth Social, but it’s still not a level playing field. Anons and “truthers” aren’t able to reach the number of people they likely could be reaching if algorithmic manipulation wasn’t occurring.

Many consider Twitter, or X as being the “battlefield”, where you go to reach the sleeping and brainwashed. This may be the case, but I think most people who were excited to get back on the platform are frustrated that there is still way too much manipulation, and they aren’t growing their reach nearly fast enough. To these people, I say, “it may start to get a lot worse.”

On 8/19/23, it was announced on multiple news sites that the Soros Open Society Foundations announced that they are going to curb their activities across the EU starting in 2024. Shortly after, Alex Soros made the claim that a Trump win in 2024 would be more devastating to Globalism, and thus to Europe than the US. These statements have been published on multiple news outlets, yet Alex Soros is now claiming they aren’t true. The Open Society Foundations statement was announced less than a week before the DSA regulations went into effect with large internet companies, and Soros’ statement about Trump was made days after the DSA went into effect.

It’s interesting to me that Alex Soros views Trump as a bigger threat to Europe than the US. I agree with him; Trump is a huge threat to Europe, especially the City of London and the people who run it, the British Cabal, but Trump is no threat to the people of the US.

Is the timing of the DSA a coincidence?

There seems to be one coincidence after another happening.

In the middle of the Covid narrative, the EU decided to create the DSA. They didn’t get the ball rolling on it until right after Musk announced that he was interested in buying Twitter. Then the next step occurred right after his purchase of Twitter.

As the regulations got closer to going into effect, Twitter, or X started to become a little less inviting to the Trump supporting truth community, accused of more and more shadow banning and manipulation. As well, Musk backed out of some promises to expose more people and organizations. But while all this has been happening, Tucker Carlson has been using X to successfully get the truth out to a larger audience than ever before.

A week before the DSA regulations went into effect, George and Alex Soros decided their influence wasn’t needed as much in Europe—as if to say they don’t need to use their resources there because Europe is now “under control”.

Three days after the big online company’s DSA regulations went into effect, Donald Trump felt the need to say in all caps, “I believe Truth Social is the greatest & ‘hottest’ form, system & platform of communication in America, & indeed the world, today. That’s why I use it-there is nothing that comes even close!!!”

Was Trump trying to tell us something?

I believe that as much of an echo chamber Truth Social currently is, as full of bots and trolls as it is, as small of a reach as it has, I believe Truth Social will play a major role someday. I anticipate a time when a communication blackout will occur; the DSA does nothing but give me confidence in this.

I can picture a scenario where both X and Amazon “cave” to the EU Commission’s DSA regulations. If X gives in, they will likely agree to severely shadow ban, or block any Deep State narrative dissenters. If Amazon is threatened to be banned from operating in Europe, they may choose to kick “truth tellers” off of AWS (Amazon Web Services.)

We could be looking at 2020 all over again, where the media and social media booted all Deep State narrative-dissenting opinions from the internet and all media sites for that matter. In my opinion, one big difference is that Truth Social now exists. Truth Social flies under the radar of the DSA regulations until next February, and Truth Social and Rumble operate their own cloud platform. If the Deep State decides to put the clamp down on truth getting out, the truth can still be communicated on Truth Social and Rumble.

What was it Trump just said about Truth Social?

“Truth Social is the greatest & ‘hottest’ form, system & platform of communication in America, & indeed the world, today.”

To the people who are using X as their main source to get the truth out, I say hopefully Musk does the right thing and allows truth to be shared on his platform without continued shadow banning and algorithmic manipulation that seems to already be in place. But pay attention to whether or not you are even being heard or seen, and be prepared to move on from X if things get worse. In other words, have a backup plan.

Recently, Musk has been critical of the ADL (the Anti-Defamation League.) I consider the ADL to be a Deep State tool used by the Cabal to block any content they don’t want out in the public. Musk seems to agree with me, claiming the ADL has been strong-arming companies against advertising on X. In my opinion, the ADL pretends to protect marginalized groups, such as Jews, when in fact, it often scapegoats them.

As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I believe the British Satanic Cabal uses Jews and other marginalized groups, and tries to deflect their actions onto them. This isn’t to say there aren’t people of Jewish heritage in the British Cabal, but rather that said Cabal wants to make it appear such groups are the ones who manipulate the puppet strings.

What should be made of Musk hiring Linda Yaccarino to be the CEO of X?

I don’t know what to make of her. Is she a European Union Commision compromise, the same way Ronald Reagan compromised to the Deep State to allow George Bush to be his VP? Apparently, she was a former Trump appointee, having been given a spot on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition from 2018 to 2020, but she also worked at the World Economic Forum. What is for sure is that she took over as the CEO of X in June, the same time the European Commission came to Twitter HQ to warn Musk of the ramifications of allowing what they determine as being fraud, hate speech or disinformation on the platform—specifically pro-Russian propaganda.

Who knows? Maybe the EU Commission will say or have already communicated to Musk that the “truth”, or what they consider to be “disinformation”, can be shared on X, but it must have algorithms placed on it, so the messages don’t reach a large audience. Maybe this will be the compromise to avoid fines and a European blackout. Someone I follow on X made the comment recently saying no one is seeing his tweets anymore, and like myself, he is very critical of Europe, and specifically, the British Cabal. I only saw his tweet because it was a response to someone who said he hadn’t seen any of his tweets lately.

In my opinion, one of three things will likely happen: either “truthers” will be banned from X and AWS, or “truthers” will be shadow banned, or X and Amazon will allow the “truth” to be shared without manipulation, and as a result, will probably face massive fines and a possible European blackout.

Does anyone think it’s a coincidence that the DSA overlords told Musk in June that they wouldn’t allow any “pro-Russian propaganda” on his platform, and the day after the DSA regulations went into effect on large internet companies, the word got out that Tucker Carlson was interested in having Vladimir Putin on his show?

We’ll find out soon enough what direction things go.

Will Putin be allowed on X, or will he not? Will Musk cave to the EU’s demands? Will Amazon cave in? Will an information blackout occur?

One thing is for sure: this time around, we have access to media sites that operate outside of the Deep State’s control. We will not be left with no way of communicating and receiving the truth.

Truth Social was in the works since at least 11/18/2011, five years before Trump became POTUS. To me, this is just more evidence that the battle for the world that is currently happening has been planned for a very long time.

For every move that the Deep State Cabal makes, a countermove has already been put in place.

Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.

---

If you enjoyed this contribution to Badlands Media, please consider checking out more of my work for free at Erik’s Substack.