Musk is ruffling EU feathers — again + Climate change is hitting beer

What happens when war erupts and social media platforms don’t have proper content moderation tools in place? In X’s case, you face fines and a 24-hour window to respond to an official inquiry into the spread of misinformation. In a change to its public interest policy announced yesterday, the platform formerly known as Twitter said it will not be filtering content that would otherwise be “difficult to see” in a quickly developing situation such as the ongoing violence between Israel and Palestine. Later in the evening, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton issued a warning to Musk that X’s new policy is in violation of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms with more than 45 mn users to monitor and take down illegal content and to also share their procedures in doing so. If X fails to comply with the regulations, it could face fines of up to 6% of its annual revenues, CNBC notes.

Then, there’s the Meta route: After getting slammed with a series of regulatory accusations since the 2016 US presidential elections, Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have shared less newsy content, a step that has prompted confusion for users who relied on Facebook or X, for their real-time news. Furthermore, pushing them out of the realm of the global community as a result of their focus on sharing entertaining content as it competes with TikTok for some spotlight, Bloomberg says.

The biggest struggle coming out of climate change: Beer just isn’t the same. A warming planet is already altering the taste and quality of beer unless farmers adapt to rising temperatures and protect their yields, The Guardian reports, citing a study warning of the impacts of climate change on the world’s third-most popular drink. According to the study, climate change is affecting the quantity and quality of hops, a main ingredient in most beer, meaning that even if the taste change is imperceptible, it’s likely that consumers will notice prices go up as hops are impacted.

By the numbers: Scientists see hop yields in growing regions in Europe are on track to decline by 4-18% by 2050 unless farmers begin implementing adaptation methods to the higher temperatures. The content of alpha acids in the hops, which give the popular drink its special taste and smell, will plunge by 20% to 31% by mid-century.

Just a buzzkill: The climate crisis is expected to have a heavy toll on the beer-brewing industry in central Europe which is a keystone of its culture, The Guardian notes. The population in the Czech Republic is the world’s top beer drinkers, according to data from Japanese beer company Kirin. Germany’s Oktoberfest welcomes 6 mn beer drinkers from all over the world annually.q