Free-speech idealism will clash with laws—and reality

RESTORING THEDSAEU supremacy of America’s First Amendment on Twitter seems priority number one for Elon Musk. Inconveniently, his acquisition of Twitter comes as several countries are passing laws to regulate how social-media firms should moderate content.The European Union’s Digital Services Act (), which was agreed on April 23rd, will do most to stymie Mr Musk’s plans to turn Twitter back into a place where almost anything goes. “Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules—regardless of their shareholding,” Thierry Breton, the ’s commissioner for the internal market, warned (on Twitter, naturally) hours after the buy-out was announced.