In the past, the EU has not hesitated to try to apply European law to tech companies. Over the past decade, for example, Google has faced three fines totaling more than $8 billion for breaking antitrust law (though one of these fines was overturned by the EU’s General Court in 2024).

I would prefer to stay out of politics,” Elon Musk told his followers in 2021, on the platform then known as Twitter. Plenty has changed since then. The world’s richest man appears to have a new goal: upending Europe.

Branko Grims, a Slovenian member of the European Parliament, cited Musk's "support for the fundamental human right of freedom of speech."

A European Parliament member from Slovenia says he nominated tech giant Elon Musk for a Nobel Peace Prize for his free speech advocacy. “The proposal that Mr. Elon Musk, for his consistent support for the fundamental human right of freedom of speech and thus for peace,