EU warns online platforms over livestreaming US execution planned by Pentagon
France 24 · LC · trust 40/100
The European Union warned digital platforms on Monday against livestreaming the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former US Army psychiatrist who is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3 for killing 13 people at a military base in 2009. Under EU rules, platforms have an obligation to moderate shocking and violent content, including capital punishment.
By: FRANCE 24 This April 9, 2010 file photo released by the Bell County Sheriffs Department, shows US Major Nidal Hasan after being moved from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. © AFP The European Union (EU) on Monday warned digital platforms against showing a planned livestream execution of the perpetrator of a mass killing in the United States.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon put forward a plan to broadcast the death by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, who shot dead 13 people in an al Qaeda -inspired attack at a military base in 2009.
It is scheduled for December 3 but US President Donald Trump has left uncertain whether the execution would indeed be broadcast publicly.
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"If you look at some platforms, Meta explicitly forbids the live streaming of capital punishments, and X and TikTok both forbid... shocking content, glorifying violence," Regnier told reporters.
"No comment on what they do in the US but in Europe , we have clear obligations."
He added that if they did not enforce their own terms and conditions, Europe would enforce its powers under its content law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
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The US administration under Trump has hit out at the DSA, accusing the law of being a tool of "foreign censorship" – accusations which Europe denies.
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