AA / Bruxelles / Beyza Binnur Donmez
The European Union threatened Twitter with sanctions on Friday following the accounts of several journalists were suspended.
“The news regarding the arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying,” Vera Jourova, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, said in a tweet.
Jourova warned that “EU Digital Services Act requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights.”
“Elon Musk (owner of Twitter) should be aware of this. There are red lines and sanctions might be coming soon,” she added.
In a similar context, the German Foreign Ministry published screenshots of the suspended accounts of some journalists, and said it had a “problem” with measures that undermine press freedom.
“Freedom of the press should not be turned on and off for convenience,” the ministry wrote in a tweet. “The journalists below can no longer follow, comment and criticize us. For this reason, we have a problem with Twitter”.
Some of the suspended accounts belong to journalists from American media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the CNN news channel.
Under the Digital Services Act, currently being debated by the EU Parliament, to come into force by 2023, the European Commission is authorized to impose fines of up to 6% of global turnover of the service provider who violates the law.
* Translated from Arabic by Mounir Bennour.
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