BRUSSELS — The European Fee plans to wrap a number of of its investigations into Large Tech underneath the bloc’s content material moderation legislation quickly, tech chief Henna Virkkunen stated Friday.
That’s prone to enrage officers in Washington, a number of of whom stated that they take into account U.S. firms are being unfairly focused by Brussels.
The European Fee on Friday slapped a €120 million high quality on Elon Musk’s X for not complying with transparency obligations underneath the EU’s Digital Providers Act (DSA). It was the first-ever high quality underneath the legislation that makes platforms accountable for content material moderation.
“Within the coming months, there can be extra selections coming,” Virkkunen instructed reporters after a gathering of EU digital affairs ministers in Brussels.
“With a lot of the investigations, we have already got revealed the preliminary findings, and after that, the subsequent step is to encourage these on-line platforms to adjust to our guidelines,” she stated. In the event that they don’t, a non-compliance resolution — which may embody a high quality — would comply with.
Whereas European politicians expressed cautious reward for the X resolution on Friday, the Trump administration reacted with fury.
“The European Fee’s $140 million high quality isn’t simply an assault on @X, it’s an assault on all American tech platforms and the American individuals by international governments,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X. “The times of censoring People on-line are over.”
When requested by POLITICO to reply to the accusation that the EU is unfairly focusing on American firms, Virkkunen stated that of 10 platforms underneath formal investigation underneath the DSA, solely three are U.S. firms.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated final week he felt Brussels was “afraid” of tackling U.S. Large Tech and that an “American offensive” had cowed the European Fee.
In a press briefing earlier within the day, Virkkunen stated that within the case of X, it had taken too lengthy to go from preliminary findings to a remaining resolution.
“I agree that it took a really very long time, particularly from the preliminary findings, as a result of the preliminary findings on this subjects [were] already revealed in summer time 2024,” she stated.