EU industry chief Breton to meet Musk on free speech, chips, batteries

[May 09, 2022]  By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU industry chief Thierry Breton will meet Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk in Texas on Monday to discuss global supply chain issues and the bloc's newly agreed rules requiring tech giants to do more to police online content, Breton's spokesman said.

 Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks during a media tour of the Tesla Gigafactory, which will produce batteries for the electric carmaker, in Sparks, Nevada, U.S. July 26, 2016. REUTERS/James Glover II

The meeting comes weeks after the world's richest man clinched a deal to buy social media company Twitter Inc for $44 billion in cash.

The two will meet at 1900 GMT/1400 CST in Austin, where the new headquarters for Musk's electric carmaker Tesla is located.

"Tech and supply chains will be high on the agenda at Tesla with Elon Musk," Terence Zakka, spokesman for Breton, said in an email.

"Free speech will also be on the menu between Thierry Breton and Elon Musk. So will EU regulation. Expect exchange on the Digital Services Act and how 'new' Twitter will play by European rules," he said.

Musk secured the deal to buy Twitter last month with a pledge to revitalise the company and expand the number of users by cracking down on spam bots and reducing the amount of moderation to facilitate more "free speech".

The billionaire's comments prompted a rejoinder from Breton that Twitter must comply with new EU rules known as the Digital Services Act tackling illegal online content.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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