Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Elon wants to abolish the EU

Transcript

Elon wants to abolish the EU · Elon Musk Podcast

0:00
Thanks to our amazing community members like you, we've reached
0:04
the top 15 of Spotify's video podcast, the Top 10 audio
0:08
podcasts on both Apple and Spotify for the tech category,
0:12
so you all make this possible. If you want to support us more,
0:16
check out our Patreon. That's patreon.com/stage 0 News
0:20
so we can keep this free and open for you to enjoy.
0:26
Something interesting happened the other day.
0:28
I was looking through our stats on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
0:32
and I noticed that about 55% of you are not subscribed to the
0:37
show. That means 45% of you are
0:39
subscribed and I really do appreciate your support.
0:42
Now the other 55% of you are awesome, but I'm going to ask
0:47
you for a favor. Could you please hit the
0:49
subscribe button? It'll take you one second.
0:51
I'm going to promise you 10 years of this podcast for free,
0:54
No pay walls. I'm not going to charge you
0:57
anything ever, but I'm going to give you 10 years of this show
1:00
for free. I've already been doing it for
1:01
five years and I plan on doing it for 10 more.
1:04
And the only way that we can continue doing this is with your
1:07
support. So one second of your time to
1:09
hit the subscribe button right now would help the show
1:13
tremendously. Thank you so much.
1:20
The European Commission fined Elon Musk's XA 120 million euros
1:25
under the Digital Services Act for transparency and design
1:29
violations. We're talking about Elon Musk,
1:32
X&E, US biggest rules for online platforms today, and the penalty
1:36
targets how X sold blue checkmarks, ran ads and open
1:39
data to independent researchers. That one caught my attention.
1:43
Is this about speech or is it about how the company runs its
1:46
products Now after the fine, Elon Musk said the European
1:50
Union should be abolished, and he blasted the decision across
1:54
his own platform on X. Going to walk you through with
1:57
the EU cited when Musk argued and what happens next if X
2:01
pushes this into court. We'll also look at what the DSA
2:04
actually asks from big platforms, how deceptive design
2:08
works in practice and what this means for the blue check
2:11
business. And we'll get right into that
2:13
after this very short break. Now, the EU imposed a €100
2:19
million fine on X for breaking transparency rules.
2:23
Then Elon Musk answered by calling the EU to be abolished
2:27
because, as we all know, billionaires like to abolish
2:32
unions. Countries, I guess, now picture
2:37
like kind of a Brussels press room, blue flags behind the
2:40
podium, reporters scrolling on their phones as they push alert
2:44
hits. The Commission said X's blue
2:46
check mark design misled users about who was actually verified.
2:51
Now that changes trust because the badge signals authenticity
2:56
to people who scan timelines fast.
2:59
And remember when the blue check mark used to be just verified
3:04
users, you couldn't buy a check mark.
3:07
You had to earn a check mark. Now if you get fooled by a
3:11
badge, you misread a post and you maybe share it.
3:15
Definition for you, A verification check mark is a
3:17
small icon that tells you an account identity has been
3:21
confirmed and not just paid for. But it doesn't matter.
3:27
It cannot be confirmed other than that you paid with a credit
3:31
card. That's it.
3:33
You could be anybody, you could confirm it.
3:35
You could be anybody doing anything.
3:36
And if you have the blue check mark, nobody's going to verify
3:40
you. That's how it works.
3:42
Alvord X Regulators also cited gaps and X's ad transparency in
3:46
the platform's research data access that put pressure on how
3:49
ads get tracked and how claims about reach, targeting and
3:52
political content can be checked.
3:54
And if researchers can't see public data, they can't test
3:57
what the company says about harm, manipulation or spam.
4:02
Now an ad repository is a searchable library of ads, who
4:06
paid for them and whom they target as transparency.
4:10
People remember, Elon Musk wants to have everything transparent,
4:15
wants freedom of speech. But also the legal frame here is
4:19
that the Digital Services Act, the E US rulebook for big
4:22
platforms, the DSA, asks large services to reduce systemic
4:26
risks, public ad libraries and open public data for vetted
4:31
researchers. That opens a new baseline for
4:34
how companies must document their systems.
4:37
Simple definition here. The DSA is a European law that
4:40
sets safety and transparency duties from major online
4:44
platforms. So what do we know right now
4:47
about all this? One, the EU levied 120 million
4:50
euros in penalties. 2 The cited violations include deceptive
4:54
design around the blue check mark and transparency failures
4:58
and blocked researcher access. Now 3 Musk answered with a
5:04
sweeping political call to abolish the whole EU.
5:08
That's it. He wants to abolish the whole EU
5:10
because they find him for deceptive practices and the
5:15
deceptive design of a blue check mark and transparency and also
5:20
blocking researcher access. Now Musk framed this penalty as
5:24
an attack on free speech and called for sovereignty to return
5:28
to member countries. And that raises a core question
5:31
about whether the fine touches content choices or product
5:34
mechanics. My read is that the Commission's
5:37
case lives in product mechanics, not your posts.
5:40
I'm a designer, I'm a developer. This is about if you design
5:46
something to verify something, a person, the design is the check
5:51
mark, the verification of who a person is.
5:54
If they're a real person, and now that you know they're a real
5:57
person because they bought a check mark.
6:00
But I guess you could buy a check mark with, you could buy
6:03
multiple checkmarks and you don't have to be a person.
6:06
You can have a be a bot with a check mark.
6:09
Now the short and clear of it is it's about how the feature works
6:12
and what the company discloses. Now here's the key point though.
6:15
The blue check mark became a paid product which blurred lines
6:18
between identity and status. That makes confusion cheaper to
6:22
buy, which is a risk if people use the badge as a shortcut for
6:25
trust. Now hold on to that detail.
6:29
Let's talk evidence and process because that's where outcome
6:32
gets decided. Here.
6:34
The Commission documented its findings and issued a formal
6:36
decision with a fine attached. X can appeal the decision in EU
6:40
courts if it believes the ruling or process will flawed.
6:44
One sentence definition here appeal is request for higher
6:48
court to review and possibly overturn a regular dater's
6:51
decision. Now Elon Musk and X, that's all
6:55
in their rights. They can do that.
6:56
They can appeal this. Now there's another thing.
6:59
Add transparency. The EU wants a living index of
7:03
political and commercial ads. Who paid for them, who saw them,
7:06
and why those people saw them. That changes how influence
7:10
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
7:13
claims about reach. Now, do you think I want to know
7:16
in the comments of whatever podcast platform you're on right
7:18
now? Because this kind of stuff gets
7:20
me riled up, What Elon Musk said that he thinks the EU should be
7:24
abolished, everything should return to what they were because
7:29
he doesn't agree with this. Fine, there's something deeper
7:34
here. There's something deeper here.
7:35
We're going to dig into that in some other episode, but not
7:37
today because we don't have enough time today.
7:40
We usually do this in about 10 minutes and we're coming up on
7:42
that mark. It's deeper than this.
7:45
Elon Musk. Do you think Elon Musk thinks he
7:48
can do this? Do you think he can abolish
7:51
that? You do you think he thinks that
7:53
because he's all powerful and he has enough money?
7:55
Once you have enough money, do you get kind of crazy?
8:00
Let me know in the comments. So if the library is complete
8:06
for all of those ads, the changes on these ads like they
8:12
have to be documented and the changes how the influence
8:15
campaigns are audited because you need hard data to test
8:18
claims about reach, the library is incomplete for these
8:22
political ads. Even good faith checks fall
8:25
apart. Now that part matters for
8:27
elections and for consumer protections.
8:31
Think about this elections, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, the EU, all
8:36
the sanctions, all the tariffs, all all the stuff it's become
8:40
politically hostile over there in Trump camp and Elon Musk
8:45
camp, not any anybody's side here.
8:47
I'm just reporting the facts. We all know how it went down and
8:50
the Elon is good at bashing people.
8:55
Let's just say this. He's good at bashing people and
8:57
he's good at just yelling into the void, right?
9:01
So he likes to yell into X and into Twitter.
9:03
He's likes to post crazy things and get people riled up.
9:09
Now research is the third leg here.
9:11
The DSA pushes platforms to give accredited researchers
9:14
controlled access to public data so independent teams can measure
9:18
risks. That opens up the light that
9:21
doesn't rely on a company blog post or a press pitch for what
9:26
Elon Musk posts on X. If the pipes are closed, outside
9:30
scrutiny can't work. And that's what Elon is afraid
9:33
of, don't you think? Leave it in the comments.
9:36
Now do a little recap before we go any further.
9:40
We're dealing with three sighted failures, 1 historic find in a
9:43
political response that tries to widen the frame to speech and
9:46
sovereignty. It's a lot of stuff going on
9:48
right now. Now let me bring this back to
9:51
you. If the blue check mark can be
9:53
bought without a true identity check, you can't use the badge
9:56
as a shortcut for who's a real person.
10:00
Anybody can buy a check mark for any account, right?
10:03
The the person could be buying the check mark, but the person
10:07
could be buying the check mark for a bot account, or a stolen
10:12
card could be used to buy the check mark for somebody's
10:14
account. Who knows?
10:17
Now that makes scams much cheaper, and it makes parity
10:20
harder to spot. My analysis is that it raises
10:24
the baseline cost for everyone to verify anything, which erodes
10:28
the trust over time. That's the practical hit.
10:31
If these people buy a check mark to show that they're a real
10:35
person, that's one thing. But if they're if they show, if
10:40
it's to show that you're actually in a reporter or a
10:45
person of interest, then that's different.
10:49
You have to apply for it and only certain people can get in.
10:52
You know, it was kind of a, it's an exclusive club.
10:54
They still do that in a blue sky.
10:57
I'm tinkering with a social network on my of my own and I'll
11:02
let you guys know about that in the future.
11:05
Sort of a mix of Reddit and Twitter and blue sky and bunch
11:10
of other things. But I'm just tinkering it and
11:13
vibe coding it right now. So I'll let you know about that
11:16
in the future, but just bear with me for a second.
11:22
Keep going with me here. The EU fine is big enough to get
11:25
Elon's attention, but it's still within the range that a large
11:28
platform can absorb it. Like X makes a lot of money,
11:32
right? Elon has a bunch of money.
11:34
He doesn't. 150 million is nothing to him.
11:36
That means the real risk isn't the single check to company
11:40
rights for this, it's 150 million.
11:43
It's the product work the company has to do to comply.
11:47
If the features stay as they are, the finds can stack up.
11:51
It's a simple cause and effect. Elon should know that he's an
11:54
engineer. You should know how that works.
11:57
But if these fines keep adding up, 150,000,300 million,
12:03
450,000,600 million, a billion dollars eventually, and then
12:11
Elon just wants to abolish the whole EU.
12:13
So that's that's his, that's the outcome that he wants.
12:16
He just wants, he doesn't want rules for him and his platform.
12:20
He's like, you know what, if you're going to put rules on me,
12:24
like let me just abolish your whole country, your whole union.
12:31
It's an interesting thing going on with this because as much as
12:37
I enjoy the great things about Elon in his engineering, SpaceX,
12:42
Tesla, Starlink, Boring Company, Neuralink, etcetera, there are
12:49
times when he says some really wild stuff like he cannot
12:52
abolish the EU. He's not that powerful.
12:56
He might want to because they called him out instead of his
12:58
BS. And there's different rules in
13:02
the EU than there are in the United States.
13:03
He wants everybody to have the same rules that he has.
13:06
Doesn't work like that, buddy. And it's not because I'm a hater
13:09
of Elon. It's just the way that some
13:11
people work, you know, it doesn't work like that.
13:15
So if you go to Japan, they don't have the same rules as
13:17
they do in Kentucky. It's just not the way it works.
13:21
You go to China, they're not the same rules as they are in
13:24
Indonesia. Doesn't work like that.
13:28
You know how it works? Just follow the rules, man.
13:33
Just follow the rules. You're no better than anybody
13:35
else. You're just a guy.
13:37
In 100 years from now, and I hate to say this about anybody,
13:41
but it's true about everybody, 100 years from now, people will
13:47
remember that Elon made electric vehicles in the USA thing.
13:55
They'll remember him building rockets, giant rockets.
14:00
If Starship succeeds, that's great.
14:04
And also some of, you know, neural link things like that to
14:07
remember that stuff, right? But at the end of the day, he's
14:11
no better than you and me. He's just a guy.
14:14
He's a guy that knows how to play the game.
14:15
He knows how to play the system and he knows how to work well
14:17
within the system. And that in itself is a massive
14:22
skill to have, as you can tell because he's accumulated so much
14:28
wealth from the game that he plays with other people's lives
14:34
that it's it's a wild thing to think about that.
14:38
So in 100 years from now, Elon not going to be here.
14:41
He cannot break up a the EU he wants to because he doesn't want
14:45
to play by the rules, but they have the rules and he has to
14:47
stick with them. He can go to court for it.
14:49
That's going to cost them money too.
14:52
So as a designer, a UX designer, and a developer, coder guy for
15:00
the last 10 years or so, I want to go back to this deceptive
15:06
design thing for a minute because that phrase shows up and
15:12
it trips up people's minds here. So deceptive design means a user
15:17
interface nudges you into misunderstanding or into choices
15:20
you wouldn't make if the screen are clearer.
15:24
So that covers labels, icons, prompts and how default settings
15:28
stereo. So that means that this blue
15:32
check mark can trick you and that's it.
15:35
Very simple. How many times have you seen a
15:37
blue check mark and been like, hey, it's a person, could be a
15:40
bot, You never know. And Musk's call to abolish the
15:45
EU is the sharpest possible response to a regulatory action.
15:49
I think it's funny. It opens up a political lane
15:52
where product questions become national identity questions.
15:56
It's a move that rallies supporters and reframes the
15:59
fight as freedom versus bureaucracy.
16:02
And I get why people think that. Now, here's where this goes.
16:06
If X appeals, the case moves into court filings and briefs
16:09
that go line by line through the design of the disclosures.
16:13
So that's where we have discovery.
16:15
We're going to discover every reason behind every design
16:20
choice that X has made and behind every choice that the
16:26
check mark was designed for, and make screenshots in developer
16:32
notes, evidence. And if X doesn't change the
16:35
product in the interim, regulators can keep pushing,
16:39
keep finding them, slow, steady, but it'll happen.
16:46
So let's talk about some practical fixes, though, because
16:51
that's what matters to users, to you and me, everyday.
16:55
A clearer check mark label could say whether identity was
16:57
verified or only paid. So you could verify your
17:02
identity with, you know, a government issued license or
17:05
something like that. A stronger ad library could show
17:10
how much they spent the audience of that spend and targeting
17:14
logic in one place you can search and that's what the EU is
17:17
asking for. And a researcher portal could
17:20
document how to request access and how the company creates it.
17:24
And that's straightforward, very easy for the people at X to
17:29
develop. Changing the tag on the blue
17:35
check mark could be very simple. You could even give people, if
17:40
it's not a blue check mark, if he just paid for that, he'd do a
17:43
blue check mark. OK, that's a person.
17:45
Maybe you make a new check mark. Maybe you make a rainbow check
17:49
mark. How about that?
17:49
And then that shows that you're a real person, you know, and
17:52
you've verified your identity. And here's the question that I
17:58
keep getting. Does any of this change what you
18:00
can post? Talked to a bunch of people
18:03
today on X and then my Discord. The decision cited how features
18:08
and disclosures work, not about specific posts or viewpoints.
18:13
So this is just mechanics for us.
18:16
Is the blue check mark going to change a little bit?
18:18
Maybe, but that's OK where it's not going to affect us at all.
18:25
Musk stance sets up a broader campaign against the DSA in
18:28
principle that makes future enforcement against other
18:31
platforms more charged. Because every action looks like
18:34
a proxy fight over speech. Even when the text is about
18:37
product design. Elon wants to make this about
18:40
speech when it's absolutely not about free speech.
18:42
This is a design choice. If you're a product manager at
18:46
any platform, including X, you're watching the check mark
18:49
case like a map of what not to ship.
18:53
That's it. Don't ship that check mark.
18:56
Think before you act people. A good product manager would
19:00
have caught this and been like, I don't know man, just a blue
19:04
check mark. People pay for it.
19:05
Sure, we're going to make money, but what does that even mean
19:07
anymore? Because the blue check mark at
19:09
one point was it was literally a status symbol if you got that
19:14
check mark. Like when I I was at the peak of
19:18
my YouTube career and I was literally feet away from where
19:24
Elon Musk toured Star Base. I was at Star Base for a year.
19:28
I could not get a blue check mark.
19:31
I knew all the guys there. I knew all the people there that
19:33
were working at Star Base and they were climbing on Starship,
19:37
welding it together, building the launchpad.
19:40
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
19:43
I couldn't get a blue check mark.
19:45
So my status wasn't good enough to get a blue check mark.
19:48
Other people's were. I wasn't.
19:50
I wasn't upset about it. I didn't care.
19:51
It's a blue check mark. It would have been cool.
19:54
I would have felt justified for the work that I was doing and
19:56
that Elon Musk and SpaceX saw me for who I was, which was a
19:59
supporter of the systems down there and the platform that
20:02
they're building didn't get it. But you know what other people
20:06
did? And they were verified this blue
20:08
check mark if you're a product manager.
20:12
It just means somebody paid for it.
20:13
That's it, That's it. So here's what I want you to
20:18
hold on to from this one. The EU's find rests on the idea.
20:21
The big platforms, oh users clarity about who's speaking,
20:24
who's paying and how research can check the system.
20:27
Musk's answer raises a political challenge that sits above those
20:31
product choices has nothing to do with the product.
20:34
It has everything to do with Elon beating his chest and being
20:37
upset that they find him because he thinks his platform is
20:40
properly developed. Now your experience or truth
20:46
online comes down to labels, libraries and accesses and also
20:50
good product managers. So choose wisely product
20:54
managers, which way do you want to go?
20:57
The facts are simple enough to track.
20:58
The EU fined €120 million for deceptive design and
21:02
transparency failures under the DSA.
21:03
Should have read the documents. Elon and company and Musk called
21:07
for the EU to be abolished. X could appeal and the product
21:12
changes the EU asked for are clear enough to ship.
21:14
If the company chooses. It won't take much time to ship
21:17
those changes, but I think Elon's going to back off and
21:21
protect this as much as he can. He might even pull Twitter or X
21:25
out of the EU if he feels like he's not going to work out.
21:30
But what will actually happen over there?
21:33
Will they really lose anything? I don't know.
21:35
There's other platforms. Anyway, I'll let you know about
21:39
my own platform in the coming weeks, and I'll let you have a a
21:43
sneak peek if you want to. And I have another thing in the
21:47
works too, and I'll tell you about that.
21:49
I've been working in the marketing industry for a very
21:54
long time in television and radio.
21:58
This podcast alone has been downloaded millions of times.
22:03
I have another podcast that's been downloaded about 3 million
22:06
times. My YouTube channel has had
22:08
millions of views as well. So I'm working on a community
22:15
for us. So if you're a business owner
22:18
and you're interested in help with podcasting or YouTube,
22:24
there's more stuff coming for you.
22:25
So please hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever
22:28
podcast platform you're on right now because there's going to be
22:30
more information about it. I'm going to leave a link to it
22:34
in the description down below, the show notes down below and
22:38
you can check it out. You can sign up for it.
22:39
It's all free. And this is I just have a bear
22:42
skeleton for you right now. There's got to be more to it.
22:45
But right now there's going to be a link in the description for
22:50
my new community for business owners and people who are
22:54
involved in any sort of business or interested in finance and
22:58
business. OK, so that's that's what I got
23:02
right now. Link down below.
23:04
Thanks everybody. Take care of yourselves and each
23:07
other and I'll see you in the next one.
23:17
Support, if you could take a second and hit the subscribe or
23:20
the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're
23:22
listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
23:25
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
23:27
miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
23:30
minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
23:33
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
23:36
to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
23:41
yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.