Thierry Breton’s exit is a ‘good day for free speech,’ says Elon Musk’s henchwoman

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Elon Musk’s social media platform X, said European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s resignation Monday was “a good day for free speech.”

Breton, who served as the EU’s commissioner for the internal market since 2019 and was a big player on digital regulation, publicly announced his resignation Monday and accused European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of acting against him.

During his time as commissioner, Breton clashed multiple times with American tech billionaire Elon Musk over content regulation on X, which Musk took ownership of in 2022 when it was still named Twitter.

Breton sent a letter to Musk in August this year urging him to ensure that X adhered to EU regulations on content moderation, ahead of the entrepreneur’s interview with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Musk responded to Breton with a meme on X telling him to, err, back off.

Breton’s move also irritated the European Commission at the time, which said that “the timing and wording” of Breton’s letter to Musk had not been coordinated with von der Leyen or other commissioners.