EU warns online platforms over livestreaming US execution planned by Pentagon

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.

Under EU rules, platforms must "enforce their own terms and conditions diligently", EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said.

"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).

"So we will definitely make sure that companies and online platforms comply with these obligations here in Europe," he added.

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.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)