X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube sign EU code to tackle hate speech

Contrary to what seems to often be believed, the EU way of doing things is to try to make companies do their own agreement and policing, as to avoid the rigidity of regulation unless we absolutely have to.

Another example is how the EU asked the phone manufacturers to agree on a common charger for years on a good will basis, and only had to regulate when samsung said they were going to back out if no regulation was made because apple was not playing ball.

So the idea here is "guys, we really don't want to come here and make a law about what is or isn't allowed to be said or what has to be fact checked and everything, we want you to behave like adults and agree together about said rules".

I believe in this case, the fact that every company is part of the same country and same bunch of absurdly rich tech companies means it's never going to work at all.

Often here in the UK if there's a problem with a particular, the first step in regulation is for the government to talk to the trade body representing the industry and basically say "Regulate yourselves, or be regulated"

Then, if they're sensible, the industry creates a code of conduct that addresses the problems that drew the attention of legislators, without being too onerous; all the main players in the industry sign up and follow it; and the government doesn't have to pass legislation.

Politicians are happy because the problem goes away, and regulatory burdens on industry don't increase. Industry is happy because they get soft-touch regulation that's under their control.

It doesn't always work, of course.

It was a naz! salut. Dont belittle his actions, he is a grown man and should be held accountable for the way he presents himself.

One could argue anything, but one risks being called a fool by everyone.

> when we try to fight each other in every single regard

Bit hard to be civil when Musk has replicated arguably the most offensive action in human history.

Prisoner's dilemma: if you steelman people who won't do the same for you, you're going to get ripped off.

could you explain what you mean - are you saying that the sign that Elon made, twice, was not a Nazi salute?

not sure what is wrong about OPs comment. is there anything false in what he said?

It's going to be really interesting to see how organizations, relying on funding and/or support from the government, will twist themselves to deny what is fairly evident in plain sight hoping to avoid retaliation in general. I'm not sure what Elon was doing/intending to do but the resemblance is uncanny. And he did it twice, just to make sure. The first time, I was like eh, could go either way, he's made unique and enthusiastic gestures in public before before. The second one was more troubling. Certainly the kind of thing that would get you tackled to the floor by German police officers. Even if unintentional, you'd have some time to think about it and some 'splaining to do.

That's literally unambiguously a nazi salute. I've seen them before, from actual nazis. Because I am descended from one unfortunately.

It's shameful and at no point does any word play and excuse making around it make it ok. This needs to stop now. Right now.

Add to that the literal support for the far right parties definitely and conclusively aligned with nazi ideology, such as the AfD, it's terrible for everyone.

Trump's entire campaign ran on curbing immigration, closing the borders and deportation of illegal immigrants. The one exception to that (the H-1B story) caused a lot of upheaval in his base. Among the many crazy things he said were things like people having to go out and vote for the last time, that he will be a dictator for a day, and calling his political opponents vermin. I'll just mention Project 2025 and his former wife mentioning that he's had a book of Hitler speeches by his bedside in passing.

Among the first acts on his first day as president he shuts down an app that helped people immigrate legally.

The first swath of Biden era executive orders rescinded[1] includes migration related ones to now loosen and reduce oversight and enable more heavy handed treatment of the matter, creating the foundation to conduct the type of raids that started happening the second he was certified[2].

Then at his inauguration this unfortunate little mishap occurs. Twice, mind you. By a man who continually promotes and enables alt-right ideology.

If you squint really, really hard, it's a dog whistle. That's the best case scenario. For everyone else, Elon Musk unambiguously performed a Nazi salute.

The absence of this moment from alt-right safe spaces like r/conservative and the X/Twitter feeds of prominent influencers despite the fact that their user base seems to have loved it is, in itself, a story worth telling.

[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/init...

[2] https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/01/kern-county-immigrati...

okay lets see

hand placement is that of the Hitler salute

arm placement is that of the Hitler salute

high of the hand is that of the Hitler salute

placement of hand before doing the salute is that of the Hitler salute

even his speech before indicates it's a Hitler salute:

"This is a new beginning. Let’s hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead"

Now this part needs a bit more explanation: The Hitler salute proper name is "Sieg Heil" which yes meas to "Hail!" someone. But it also literally translated means "victory heal".

The meaning here was to "heal" Germany (which include taking over territories in the twisted interpretation of Nazis) but also to "heal" Germany (from Jews, queer people, disabled people etc. by killing them. It also was all about creating a unified fascist Germany under Hitler. It was also about projecting power and that it's a new Germany.

I.e. "new beginning/new Germany", "heal", "unify", "let's make it grate again" (to use modern lingo) where the core aspects of "Sieg Heil" just with very perfidy interpretations of heal and unify. But then taking otherwise well meaning symbolism (e.g. the swastika) and then appropriating it and turning it into something evil was the standard mode of operation of Nazis.

So he makes a Hitler salute after saying things which Hitler (in slightly different words due to language changing over time) would have said (before going full maks off let's kill all yews).

I rally don't know how anyone could interpret it as not being a nazi salute, that would be supper naive/self blinding/foolish.

Now the more interesting interpretation is does it mean he is a Nazi?

Well probably no.

Nazi is a very specific term, and there are many other kinds of fascism which aren't Nazis (which to be clear "different" doesn't contain a judgement. It neither implies "better" nor "worse").

Through what it is is a very clear statement of "I'm a fascist" and/or "I idolizes at least some aspects of Nazi Germany".

Which, let's be honest, shouldn't surprise anyone who followed what he was doing in roughly the last year.

This is already a political position - you might consider something is harmful to a particular group, but I might view this as the opposite. I think it's very easy to see a practical example of this..

As far as I can tell Elon seem to have lost interest and doesn't care much anymore about Tesla as a Car company the moment where he realized it likely will be just one of many E-Car companies and he likely won't win the race to full self driving in any in a larger picture dominant way.

But Trump in the past multiple times said more or less "he will stop EV mandates and move the subventions over to battery development and production". I.e. if he doesn't just do the first half it means subventions move from profiting a variety to car companies to mainly profiting Tesla(as a battery company).

I.e. this seems long term beneficial for him.

These people also don't see a problem with it: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-mus...

And this person similarly doesn't see a problem with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tlenyBWs4w&t=88s

Uh no, you can watch the video for yourself. Mush clearly made 2 back to back nazi salutes: Forcefully and unambiguously

He did it, repeatedly, and clearly.

Pls stop trying to sane-wash his actions.

What are you claiming? That The Guardian doctored the video?

How is footage that musk himself reposted misinformation?

Mastodon is federated, like email so censorship is more difficult as you can switch servers.

The alternative is moderation only on content (CP for example) and not on speech (save for crimes like death threats and so on).

The more you censor speech the more radicalized people become against the system setting that censorship. It becomes a self perpetuating feedback loop.