Brussels, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ Less than a week before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, US technology companies, spoiling for a fight, are positioning themselves against the EU. But the match has not even begun yet.

The European Commission reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing European Union laws and compelling social media platforms to respect citizens' rights after a storm of criticism from United States tech bosses put the bloc on the defensive.

No matter their origin or 'where they're established', companies offering services in the EU must comply with EU legislation, Thomas Regnier, a commission spokesperson for technological sovereignty, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday.

The EU executive arm, responsible for enforcing the bloc's digital laws, was responding after Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg accused Europe of protectionism and 'censorship' and piled the pressure on the bloc after interventions in Germany and former EU member state Britain from US tech billionaire Elon Musk during the week prior.

In an interview with popular US podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday, Zuckerberg called on US President-elect Donald Trump to defend major US tech companies against EU sanctions.

Zuckerberg claimed that the EU had fined technology companies 'more than $30 billion over the last ten or 20 years,' arguing that its policy towards companies was 'almost like a customs tariff'.

European regulators have fined Facebook parent company Meta billions of Euro for violating data protection and competition rules in recent years.

Zuckerberg echoed the comments of Musk, the owner of X and a close ally of Trump, who has criticised the Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark EU law regulating digital content and social media platforms.

Brussels rejects Zuckerberg's accusations, but has left its legal arsenal for targeting the world's biggest digital platforms holstered for now, apparently for fear of angering the incoming US leadership after Trump got elected a second time.

"Social media platforms play an important role in people’s daily lives," Henna Virkkunen, European Commissioner for technological sovereignty, wrote on X, "but they also have enormous social and economic importance and influence." 

"In Europe, we want to create a safe and fair digital environment," she added, highlighting that the EU's task is to make sure that citizen's rights are respected and the bloc's legislation is complied with.

Virkkunen's comments on X were the first response in defense against Zuckerberg's attacks, but the commissioner refrained from making any direct reference to the boss of Meta and from criticising his company straight-out.

Brussels authority slow to intervene
The Zuckerberg interview with Rogan took place a few days after the Meta group announced that it was abandoning third-party fact-checking in the US and would turn to a model known as 'Community Note', popularized by X, where users themselves moderate and debunk lies.

Meta's decision to axe fact-checking in the US - which disinformation experts fear risks opening the floodgates for false narratives - also did not elicit a major response from the EU executive arm so far.

The commission's silence is part of a pattern: it has stayed resolutely out of the fray as Trump ally Musk goaded European leaders with a series of incendiary outbursts on migration, crime and freedom of expression.

The Brussels authority did however contradict statements made by Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in conversation with Musk on X, regarding the surveillance of their interaction on the platform by more than one hundred EU officials under the DSA.

Weidel said that 150 EU bureaucrats would listen to the conversation 'to enforce this ridiculous law on digital services'. This was nothing more than censorship of free speech, Musk said.

'That is wrong,' said a spokesperson for the Commission. It was not a question of monitoring the content of the livestream, or reacting to it, instead two or three employees would monitor the systems broadcasting and publishing the livestream.

These systems would include a platform's algorithm or recommendation systems, for example.

In total, according to the commission, there are around 150 staff working on all aspects of enforcing the DSA, not just on this one livestream. These staff would actively work on monitoring platforms' compliance with the DSA and on other various operations.

Do not ‘tremble' under American pressure
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned about the rise of the 'far-right international' led 'by the richest man on the planet', in reference to Musk, on the 50th anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco, the country's former autocratic dictator.

Sánchez was highly critical of the US billionaire and lamented his attacks on democratic institutions, his incitement of hatred and calls for support in Germany for the AfD.

In contrast to the EU executive arm, European lawmakers, fearful that Trump's victory could cause Brussels to hesitate in enforcing new technology laws, stepped up the pressure on the commission.

In the latest move, French MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday, urging Brussels 'not to tremble' under American pressure.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called on the commission to either apply 'with the greatest firmness the laws that we have given ourselves to protect our public space' or else revert the powers back to EU member states to do so.

Spanish Digital Affairs Minister Óscar López warned in an interview that X 'is much more powerful' than other media outlets and that Musk uses his social network 'as he pleases'. 'Where are the limits, who regulates, how do you regulate?' he asked.

EU not slow to act on TikTok
The newfound reticence is not limited to Meta or X.

On the day of the US election last year, news broke that Apple was set to face a fine under the bloc's new tech competition law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), but two months later, the penalty has yet to arrive.

Sources close to the matter said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's cabinet froze plans to fine Apple, fearing any sanction could hurt fragile transatlantic ties under Trump.

The contrast is striking with firms from outside the US.

The Commission in December opened a probe into TikTok owned by Chinese entertainment giant ByteDance following allegations the platform was used by Russia to sway the result of Romania's later annulled presidential election.

Concerns about TikTok extend outside of the EU. In Albania, the government in December banned TikTok for one year. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that this social network had incited violence and bullying among Albanian teenagers.

European regulators have also been probing X since December 2023, but Musk's close ties to Trump have raised questions about how the EU will handle his platform and its suspected DSA violations, which could lead to fines.

Musk has support however from other EU member states and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni rejected criticism that Musk was a threat to democracy.

'Is the problem [with Musk] that he is rich and influential or that he is not left-wing?,' Meloni told reporters in a press conference in Rome.

'I have seen several cases and often against me and no one has been scandalized,' she added.

The EU-US regulatory cage fight
In the new Trump era, EU regulators will have to enter the ring quickly.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese authorities are weighing up the possibility of Musk acquiring TikTok's US operations should the popular platform be banned in the US by the end of the week.

The US passed a law last year that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the country where the app has 170 million users.

The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard arguments from both sides on Friday: Washington says it wants to prevent the risks of spying and manipulation by Beijing, while the social network and its associations accuse the law of stifling freedom of expression.

A clear majority of judges were willing to authorize the ban.

The Chinese government and ByteDance have always openly opposed the sale of the American part of TikTok.

But 'senior Chinese officials had already begun discussing contingency plans for TikTok as part of a broad discussion about how to work with Donald Trump's administration, one of which involves Musk,' confidential sources told Bloomberg.

FACT CHECK
Ahead of Elon Musk's interview with AfD leader Alice Weidel, misleading claims circulated online saying that multiple German internet providers were carrying out maintenance work intended to disrupt the talk.

However, the fact-checking team of the German Press Agency dpa explained that in fact only one company was conducting maintenance work on the day of the interview. Other providers like O2, Telekom and Vodafone did not have maintenance planned.

Read the full fact check in German: https://dpa-factchecking.com/germany/250109-99-534166

The content is based on news by agencies participating in the European Newsroom (enr, a cooperation project between news agencies from all over Europe) - in this case AFP, ANSA, ATA, dpa, Europa Press, EFE. AGERPRES (editor: Mariana Ionescu)