"A regulation will take effect on August 25 that requires big social media platforms to take action against disinformation … I want Twitter to come in compliance by August 25 with the new EU rules that we have adopted. If not, it will no longer be welcome in Europe," Barrot told France Info radio.
Asked if he was hinting at a blanket ban, the minister said that if Twitter did not comply with the rules, it would be banned by the European Union in the event of a repeat offense.
Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, last week pulled the popular microblogging site out of the EU's voluntary code to fight "disinformation." European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton warned that Twitter would still be bound by the EU’s Digital Services Act, which targets platforms with more than 45 million monthly active users.
In February, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed concern that Twitter's policies under Musk would harm efforts to fight disinformation and manipulation, including by removing free access to its application programming interfaces.
In October 2018, at the suggestion of the European Commission, major IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Twitter signed the Code of Practice on Disinformation, which outlines commitments and concrete actions signatories pledge to take to fight disinformation online.