In a clear jab at the U.S.-based social media companies that have put free speech on their banners and allied with the Trump administration—Meta and X—European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that Brussels will not let global tech companies get away with disregarding the content moderation rules laid down in the EU’s infamous censorship tool, the Digital Services Act (DSA)—regardless of where they are located or who is running them.
“The rules voted by our co-legislators must be enforced,” von der Leyen told Politico on Monday, April 22nd.
“That’s why we’ve opened cases against TikTok, X, Apple, Meta, just to name a few,” she then went on, before claiming that the political bias had nothing to do with Brussels’ enforcement of the DSA:
We apply the rules fairly, proportionally, and without bias. We don’t care where a company’s from and who’s running it. We care about protecting people.
While it’s true that all of these companies are facing punitive action from EU regulators to a different extent, in most cases, the EU has been floating only “modest” fines of a few million euros so far, and mostly for non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), not the much more sinister DSA.
However, the case of Elon Musk’s X is different, defeating the entire ‘no political bias’ argument.
We reported earlier this month that Brussels is preparing to impose a completely unprecedented €1 billion fine on the company at the end of an ongoing investigation into its alleged DSA violations that began in 2023, right after Musk purchased the website and turned it into a cornerstone of online free speech.
Specifically, the case covers X’s refusal to police and censor “unlawful” content—anything that’s deemed ‘harmful’ or ‘disinformation’ by Brussels—as well as to share its data with external actors, such as researchers, regulators, or ‘fact-checkers.’ Reasonable things, considering the revelations of the Twitter Files, which many seem to have forgotten.
Meta could soon face a similar situation, as it’s been hit with the same criticism from Brussels since Mark Zuckerberg ditched his fact-checkers for being politically biased and carrying out the will of the Democratic Party and the various U.S. intelligence agencies in their content moderation.
In other words, American companies that have been actively working to restore and protect the freedom of speech are now being coerced by Brussels to allow the EU’s fact-checkers (the same organizations that were booted by Zuckerberg) to resume their previous censorship work under the DSA.
While von der Leyen may act like all global tech giants are treated the same in Brussels, the mainstream parties in the EU Parliament’s ‘Ursula coalition’ made it abundantly clear earlier this year that their problem is specifically with the “tech oligarchs” who aligned with President Trump.
What’s more, the alleged disinformation that spreads on X and Meta was named as one of the key reasons the EU is working on the so-called Democracy Shield, an additional toolbox to help police online content and enforce existing DSA rules.
The EU’s increasingly aggressive stance on free speech-oriented platforms (and U.S. companies in general) didn’t escape the attention of the Trump administration. Back in February, Vice President JD Vance called out the EU’s insistence on political censorship, while the “unfair” targeting of U.S. tech giants is a central point of conflict in the escalating trade war between Washington and Brussels.
With everything happening since Trump took office, von der Leyen’s claim that DSA enforcement is not political is simply ridiculous. Perhaps she should start fact-checking herself next time.