Brussels – In 2024, the European Commission equipped itself with a legal arsenal to regulate its digital space, with a major text to combat abuses of dominant positions in the economic field (the DMA), and another to curb illegal content and misinformation on the internet (the DSA).
However, since Donald Trump’s election, who holds a hard line against Europe, the Brussels executive seems keen not to offend him, while Meta (Facebook, Instagram) joined X on Tuesday in its crusade against European regulations.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, in a move toward Trump and his supporters, announced that he is ending “fact-checking” within his group in the United States, with no impact in Europe for now. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is inserting himself into political debates in the United Kingdom and, in Germany, with the leader of the far-right AfD party.
On Wednesday, the Commission “categorically” refuted Zuckerberg’s accusations of censorship. But there was no reaction from President Ursula von der Leyen, admittedly immobilized by pneumonia, nor from her commissioners.
This apparent passivity prompted an outraged reaction from Paris. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot urged Brussels on Wednesday to protect member states against interference in the European public debate.
“Either the European Commission applies the laws we have enacted to protect our public space with the utmost firmness, or it does not, and then it must agree to return to the EU member states the ability to do so,” he asserted. (8 January 2025)
