Why Europe’s Resistance to Big Tech Matters for the Future of Democracy
Over the past several years, Europe has enacted a set of laws, regulations and antitrust remedies intended to bolster democratic oversight and accountability, compliance and competition, and ultimately the health of its information ecosystems by redressing the outsized power of very large online platforms (VLOPs). Over the past year, the United States government and dominant tech firms launched a campaign to undermine digital legislation in Europe, equating regulation with censorship to protect American dominance while undermining the democratic sovereignty of its allies.
This campaign targets the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) as well as other laws that apply to the very largest digital platforms. The administration has inaccurately portrayed these laws as “foreign censorship” and “taxes on American firms.” These attacks appear designed to achieve three main objectives:
To protect US tech platforms from public oversight and accountability;
To weaken European sovereignty; and
To clear the way for extremist parties and those who directly oppose liberal democracy
The scale and scope of this interference is unprecedented: The US House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas to major tech platforms demanding their communications with European governments regarding compliance with EU law. The chair sent a letter to European officials demanding an end to “foreign censorship,” and last month they held a public hearing giving critics of EU and UK regulation – including Big Tech-funded lobbyists – a platform to air their grievances.
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