Two years after commencing a “pioneering journey” to forge an EU-controlled answer to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the European Commission has called time on ‘EU Voice.’
Brussels wanted its very own alternative to the social media giant recently rebranded X, which has itself clashed with Eurocrat regulators over its free speech policies. An anti-Musk platform, based on the left-leaning networked system Mastodon, has proved a dismal failure.
The decision to shutter the EU-run platform comes after, embarrassingly, the site could only register a mere 40 ‘institutional accounts’ from the hundreds of MEPs, Commissioners, diplomats and other officials employed by the Commission. Even Margrethe Vestager, a top EU Big Tech regulator, appears never to have used her own account.
Brussels’ Twitter clone was handled by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). The exact costs of this doomed initiative remain unknown. Hilariously, a sister platform ‘EU Video’ could only recruit six registered accounts!
Hoping to put a positive spin on the shuttering of both platforms, the EDPS’ Wojciech Wiewiórowski claimed that the EU was “unable to secure new ownership to maintain the servers and sustain operations at the high standards that EUIs and our users deserve.” Long positioning itself as the global tech regulator, the EU has been in a running battle with Musk and other American enterprises for years, which it accuses of spreading hate speech and misinformation.
Many allege Brussels is attempting to gain leverage against American-owned tech companies through overregulation. Twitter itself was targeted last December in a landmark legal case from the EU, using the recently inaugurated Digital Services Act (DSA) .last December. Both EU Video and EU Voice were launched in April 2022, coinciding with Twitter accepting Musk’s $43 billion offer to purchase the platform. The right-leaning tech magnate can also pressure Eurocrats using his prominence in such technologies as satellite systems and electric car production.
Both the EU Video and EU Voice websites at the time of the closure were effectively devoid of content, apart from a select handful of EU Commission-run accounts, with many querying how such a project secured public funding.
Even Margrethe Vestager, a top EU Big Tech regulator, appears never to have used her own account.
Some online commentators have drawn comparison with other doomed EU-sponsored projects such as Quaero, the Commission’s disastrous attempt at creating a European search engine, and Qwant, the French government’s preferred alternative to Google.
Prior to publication, the EDPS had not replied to our inquiries about the exact cost of EU Voice and EU Video.
