Among the hot spots between the United States and the European Union, what deserves the most attention is how major American internet companies may or may not be targeted by the EU.
The key to this is the Brussels Digital Services Act (DSA). This act came into force in 2022 and aims to address issues such as illegal content, potential disinformation and transparency in online advertising.
The European Commission has already opened proceedings against Elon Musk's X, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, and the popular Chinese platform TikTok. These cases could result in astronomical fines. And that would likely prompt the US to respond.
The EU opened a case against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in the summer of 2024, investigating the company's advertising policies, as well as what is known as the "lookalike threat" - which is a system of fake ads and fake websites that clone genuine newspapers with the aim of spreading disinformation.
The European Commission acted on suspicions that the advertising system used by Meta had allowed the spread of fake news originating from Russia.
Recently, Meta also announced that it has scrapped its fact-checking program to focus on a model called "community notes," which is used by the X platform. So far, this only applies to the US market, but if it expands to the EU, Brussels could launch additional investigations.
The other change Meta recently made was to modify its policies on hate speech, specifically removing rules that prohibit insults to an individual’s appearance based on their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. This change also applies in the EU, and the European Commission is now reviewing the risk assessment that Meta submitted to the EU when making this change.
Yes, it can, but it won't do it with six.
As a European Commission spokesperson recently stated: "It is not our intention to suspend any platform in the EU."
However, this would be possible according to the DSA as a last resort, if Brussels believed there was a serious public threat.
Individual EU states could also suspend apps and services on their territory, provided they have the necessary national legislation to do so. But that remains unlikely, as it would cause too much tension, especially with US companies, given that European regulators typically prefer fines to bans.
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, founded by Chinese entrepreneurs and with significant operations in China, is under scrutiny by the European Commission following the Romanian presidential elections in November 2024.
Brussels has opened an investigation into how the company manages political advertising and the algorithms behind its recommendation engine.
This investigation came after a large number of fake accounts began posting content in support of far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, who scored a surprise victory in the first round of voting.
Romania's Constitutional Court then annulled the election result, claiming that a campaign on TikTok - thought to have originated in Russia - influenced the vote.
Brussels regulators have asked TikTok to store and share all data and documents related to the presidential campaign.
Elon Musk's social media company, X, was the first to be targeted by the DSA in the summer of 2023.
At the time, the European Commission began investigating possible transparency violations, particularly over the company's use of blue checks, which originally served as a sign of a verified account but now indicate premium users. The investigations also included how advertising information was stored and used.
In the summer of 2024, the European Commission reached a preliminary conclusion that X had infringed the DSA. This conclusion gave the company access to all the case documents, a volume of over 6,000 pages, and the opportunity to submit objections, which are now being examined in Brussels.
Additional investigations were opened later, in 2023, into how the company operates its "community notes" system, particularly regarding hate speech and violent online content on the platform.
These investigations were expanded last week, when the Commission asked X to explain by February 15 the recent changes - and future ones - to its content aggregation algorithms. The Commission also demanded that the US-based company preserve all data related to these changes and provide access to Xt's systems to investigate how accounts and content make their way around the world.
While European Commission officials insisted that these actions were not related to any specific political event, the expansion of the investigation occurred just days before Donald Trump's inauguration and just a week after Musk aired an interview on X with Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Musk has said he supports this party for the parliamentary elections in Germany, which are held on February 23.
If the European Commission finds that a company has violated the DSA, then the most common penalty is a fine – which is usually quite high. The maximum that can be imposed is 6% of the company’s annual global revenue, which can translate into billions of dollars.
In addition to fines, the European Commission can impose interim measures in cases where it suspects users have suffered serious harm, but this is very rare. In fact, the Commission has only used this tool once, threatening TikTok Lite, a faster and data-lighter version of the main app.
TikTok Lite, which launched in France and Spain offering rewards for users who watched videos, was introduced without any prior risk assessment. After threats from the European Commission, TikTok withdrew the app from the EU and promised never to launch it or a similar version again.
This is the big question. It is worth noting that the European Commission is tasked with preserving the European Union's internal market, not the member states.
Many expected the European Commission to impose fines on X towards the end of last year, but in the end nothing happened.
The new European Commission, which took office on December 1, 2024, appears to be acting more cautiously.
There have been suggestions that the investigation may have been suspended, although the commission has denied this. EU officials have said they are still reviewing all the documents to build a strong case that will stand up in the EU Court of Justice, where any potential fines against X, Meta or TikTok are expected to be challenged.
There is great interest in the role of social media companies in Brussels and beyond.
Most major political groups in the European Parliament are pressuring the European Commission to implement the Digital Services Act and punish tech companies. However, EU member states are more divided on the issue.
In countries where anti-Americanism is pronounced – like France or the far-left parties in Germany – there is a strong desire to take tough measures against social media companies, the vast majority of which are owned by American companies or individuals.
On the other hand, Washington's close allies, such as the Netherlands, Scandinavian countries and the Baltic states, are more cautious. These countries worry that the fines could undermine US support for NATO or trigger a transatlantic trade war.
Meanwhile, a large number of populist parties and politicians on the continent, who have used these platforms to boost their popularity, hate the DSA, calling it "European censorship."
This issue is of great importance and is unlikely to fade away anytime soon. REL (A2 Televizion)
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