Twitter closes Brussels office, raising concerns over EU rules compliance

Twitter is closing its Brussels office entirely, raising serious concerns over the social media company's ability to comply with the EU's strict new digital guidelines.

The Brussels office's closure follows last week's dismissal of two senior Brussels-based Twitter employees, Julia Mozer and Dario La Nasa. They were responsible for ensuring Twitter's compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA): a set of EU regulations which came into force last week to set new, strict rules on how tech companies must ensure users' safety online.

"I'm concerned about ​ the news of firing such a vast amount of staff of Twitter in Europe", said the European Commission's Vice President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, to The Financial Times. "If you want to effectively detect and take action against disinformation and propaganda, this requires resources," she addes.

The Brussels office's closure adds up to the chaos that has afflicted Twitter ever since Elon Musk, the world's richest man, bought the platform for $44 billion late last month. Shortly after his takeover, Musk fired half of the company's staff (approximately 4,000 jobs) and then, in an abrupt and unexplained reversal, asked several dozen to come back.

Last week, Twitter temporarily closed its San Francisco office headquarters after hundreds of employees rejected Musk's offer to stay at the company only if they committed to an "extremely hardcore" work schedule of "long hours at high intensity".

Both Mozer and La Nasa declined to comment to The Financial Times. No one was available for comment at Twitter.

(VIV)

^{European Commission Vice-President in charge of Values and Transparency Vera Jourova at the EU headquarters in Brussels on April 27, 2022 ©BELGA PHOTO (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)}