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Late on Tuesday a significant warning was sent to billionaire Elon Musk by the European Commission.
The letter said X, formally known as Twitter, was being used to spread both illegal and “manifestly false or misleading information”.
This is serious, because under the EU’s new laws for tech platforms, those that do not act sufficiently to prevent such content can face vast fines of up to 6 per cent in global revenue.
Anyone with the misfortune to spend time on the platform since Saturday will have experienced its deterioration into a cesspit of lies, unspeakable video footage and sociopathic hot takes.
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However, the commission may well ask itself: what about when the misinformation is coming from inside the house?
A claim remains public on the X platform on the official, verified account of Hungarian commissioner Oliver Varhelyi.
It states that all EU donor money to the Palestinians, a total of €691 million, has been put “under review” and adds: “all payments immediately suspended.”
Such a decision can only be made by EU member states, not the commission, according to the legal understanding of the Irish Government and multiple member states.
[ Elon Musk’s vision for free speech on X tested by Israel-Hamas war misinformation ]
However, this declaration was launched a full day before foreign ministers had a chance to meet to discuss their stance on the issue.
When they did so, the idea was roundly rebuffed. “We will have to support more, not less. More,” the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after the meeting, adding that this was the view of the overwhelming majority of member states.
He said that indiscriminately cutting off Palestinian aid would be the “best present that we could give to Hamas”.
Varhelyi’s post nevertheless remains live on X, where it has done the rounds of the world, with no clarification from the commissioner apart from some comments apparently sticking to his position given to the Financial Times.
His post has been appended with a note by readers that adds: “By late Monday, the commission stated there will be no suspension of payments.”
The widespread view within the EU institutions is that Varhelyi would not have taken such a bold step without the knowledge and backing of the administration of Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban, who appointed him.
Varhelyi has form on this, as he previously obstructed the payment of education aid to the Palestinian territories despite the loud opposition of member states, notably Ireland. He was acting on a previously held political conviction.
The pressing question is: would he have done so without thinking he had the support of his boss, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen?
[ Israel-Palestinian dispute hinges on statehood, land, Jerusalem, refugees ]
The commission’s chief spokesman Eric Mamer has said that Varhelyi acted without consulting von der Leyen or any other commissioner.
But things looked different in the immediate aftermath when the post was published, as the commission’s official press service confirmed to journalists that the tweets were accurate.
Strange too that the commission quickly said that there would be no sanction for Varhelyi. That is surprising for someone who caused such an international furore that the secretary general of the United Nations António Guterres got on the phone to the top EU leadership to urge against suspending Palestinian aid.
The commission wiggled its way out of this debacle by introducing a distinction between developmental aid and humanitarian aid in later statements; saying that no payments were planned anyway so none were suspended; and announcing there would be a review to ensure no funding is inadvertently supporting terrorism.
This is all a complex mess and might appear trivial in comparison to the horrific conflict that is now burgeoning in the Middle East.
But it opens up several questions that have no happy answers.
One of these things is true. Either the commission does not know what it funded and might have accidentally funded terrorist activities with EU taxpayers’ money due to insufficient controls; or aid funding was sufficiently audited, but commissioners were prepared to nevertheless punish the general Palestinian population for the actions of Hamas at a time when they face an appalling humanitarian crisis.
One of these things is true. Either von der Leyen did not have control of her commission, or Varhelyi had reason to believe he would be supported by her in an announcement that disregarded the will of the member states.
Irrespective of which of these ugly possibilities prove true, this unseemly debacle has very publicly undermined the credibility of the EU on the international stage.