Twitter folded its Brussels office after a wave of company-wide cutbacks and departures. Although the Brussels office was small, it was seen as a “crucial conduit for European policymakers,” according to the Financial Times, which first reported the news.
The last two columns of the Brussels office, Julia Moser and Dario La Nasa, reportedly left the company last week.
Neither Moser nor NASA were responsible for Twitter’s digital policy in Europe, including compliance with the European Disinformation Act and the Digital Services Act, which aim to limit the spread of illegal content online.
The Brussels office is being disbanded at a critical time as the Digital Services Act took effect last week, and EU officials fear Twitter will not adhere to these new rules.
Vera Jourova, the EU vice president in charge of misinformation law, told the Financial Times in a written statement later sent to diverse.
Jourova also said she expected “Twitter to fully respect EU law and honor its obligations (…) especially in the context of the Russian disinformation war”.
She said Twitter has been “a very useful partner in the fight against misinformation and illegal hate speech and this must not change.”
The policy maker warned Twitter that “European laws still apply to Twitter, regardless of who owns it.”
“Musk should not diminish our resolve to take responsibility and accountability on the big platforms. We, as the European Union, will not accept that the European information space is once again so easily poisoned by disinformation or Russian propaganda,” Jourova continued.
Other Twitter executives have been laid off as part of major layoffs planned by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk. About a week after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, Musk is poised to lay off roughly half of his current workforce of roughly 7,500.
Twitter could not be reached for comment as it does not appear to currently have a media relations team.
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