Washington and Brussels Vie for Control Over Big Tech

When US lawmakers gathered in Washington last Wednesday for a hearing about European online safety rules, you could be forgiven for thinking the almost 5-hour hearing would focus on the policy complexities of the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act.

Instead, the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee hearing became a physical representation of how the culture wars, which began in the United States, but have subsequently spread across most democratic countries, have engulfed global attempts at policing the digital world.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, laid out the case for the prosecution.

“Laws like the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Online Safety Act (OSA) are the engines of a global censorship regime targeting political speech disfavored by European bureaucrats,” Jordan told the hearing.

His Democratic party opponents, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), framed the testimony — including from populist British politician and devoted Trump supporter Nigel Farage — to criticize the White House and Congressional Republicans for targeting long-standing European allies and their growing stable of digital regulation.