A number one EU official has denied taking a softer approach to Big Tech, citing a “very clear legal basis” for regulators and pointing to several ongoing investigations into the likes of social media platform X and Meta.
The FT reported earlier this week that the EU was reassessing investigations into Apple, Google and Meta — a process that would ultimately result in the European Commission, the manager arm of the EU, scaling back or changing the main target of their probes.
Nonetheless, chatting with CNBC on Thursday, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vp for tech sovereignty, pushed back.
“Now we have our Digital Service Act that got here into force a little bit bit multiple 12 months ago, and there’s several formal proceedings happening against, we will say, all the massive platforms: Meta platforms, Instagram, Facebook, also on X and with TikTok,” Virkkunen said.
“We’re continuing the work, so there will not be any latest decisions made. So we’re doing the investigations [to see] in the event that they are complying with our rules,” she said.
The Digital Services Act or DSA, which got here into full effect in 2024, gives EU institutions the ability to manage Big Tech in a bid to forestall illegal and harmful activities online, and clamp down on disinformation.
Despite these latest powers, nevertheless, there are growing questions on how the EU is definitely going to implement the principles, particularly within the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“It stays to be seen what the EU will do, as some investigations have gone further than others, but it is usually clear that U.S. tech firms will try to make use of the Trump administration to ward off on EU rules,” Dexter Thillien, lead analyst on the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC.
It comes because the tech industry attempts to cozy as much as Trump ahead of his second term as president. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg will attend Trump’s inauguration next week, in keeping with NBC news.
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week, meanwhile, called on the incoming U.S. president to take a look at the EU’s approach to Big Tech, saying the way in which the bloc applies competition rules is “almost like a tariff.”
EU official Virkkunen is one among a latest team of politicians that began their work as members of the EU’s executive arm in December. Until now, the bloc has been considered a frontrunner of tech regulation and has opened the door to several probes into the behavior of Big Tech firms.
When asked if she was considering taking a softer approach to the sector, Virkkunen said: “We [have a] very clear legal basis and regulation rules in Europe, and in fact, now we’re fully enforcing those rules.”
Virkkunen didn’t say whether she was feeling pressure because of this of Trump’s return to the White House. As an alternative, she said, “all firms, whether American, European or Chinese, should respect the EU’s regulations.”
Investigating X
In December 2023, Musk’s X was hit with the EU’s first probe under the Digital Services Act. The European Commission is assessing whether X breached transparency obligations and its duties to counter illegal content.
On the time, the institution said it was specifically assessing areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, promoting transparency and data access for researchers.
As Musk continues to court the far-right ahead of an election in Germany — including hosting a live discussion with AfD party leader Alice Weidel — there are questions on whether the European Commission will assess this conversation as a part of the investigation.
“This will not be about Elon Musk. It’s about X,” Virkkunen said.
“X is [a] very large online platform, they should take their responsibilities, and so they should assess and mitigate the risks, for instance, what they’re posting for the electoral processes and for civic discourse. But [the European] commission is already investigating X on this, and the scope of investigation is already quite large,” she said, adding that “we’re on a regular basis monitoring” in case of recent developments.
