The EU is on the warpath with Silicon Valley again as the bloc’s top regulator touched down in California Thursday in the hope of taking social media bosses to task over looming content moderation rules.
European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton packed his bags for the U.S.A. to read Twitter and Facebook the riot act ahead of the launch of new EU hate speech regulations coming into effect in August.
The visit could have major regulatory ripples as the EU looks to lay down the law with non-compliant American tech companies relatively unfamiliar with the bloc’s regulatory culture when it comes to free speech.
Breton, who heads up the EU’s regulatory wing regarding Big Tech, has previously served as the French Minister for Finance as well as the CEO of the communications firm Vantiva, and has described his work regulating Silicon Valley as carrying the “will of the state and the people” to tech chiefs.
The 68-year-old French bureaucrat met with Elon Musk and Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino on Thursday, with Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang scheduled for Friday, during the two-day visit to primarily mull content moderation. He said that Twitter in particular was the “stress case” regarding the effectiveness of EU hate speech legislation.
His visit comes ahead of the launch of the landmark EU Digital Services Act which radically transforms the landscape of content moderation and forces platforms to do the heavy lifting when it comes to hate speech regulation.
Critics of the Act warn that it is draconian in nature and aims to suffocate freedom of expression—if not kill all new tech innovation entirely—as it enshrines the obligations of platforms to clamp down on hate speech.
The primary cause of concern for the EU, when it comes to content regulation online, is Elon Musk and Twitter; the platform just last month dropped out of EU anti-disinformation codes of best practice. Musk has been vocal against hate speech legislation in various EU member states, such as Ireland. Pundits expect a blowout between Twitter and the EU, potentially having major implications on Europe’s social media landscape.
Despite being a headache to stuffy EU regulators, Musk indicated in an interview with French TV that he could bend the knee on content moderation rules—a major coup for Brussels bureaucrats.
Tension between Silicon Valley and the EU over tech regulations has been long in the making and arises from divergent approaches to privacy, antitrust, and content moderation, as well as concerns regarding market dominance and data protection that can lead to clashes over regulatory frameworks and compliance standards.
In a statement to The European Conservative, a spokeswoman for Mr. Breton’s office said that in tandem to the visit, the Commission has also launched a new ‘digital diplomacy’ office to manage the EU’s relations with Silicon Valley.
Post-2016, the EU has been struggling to force American tech companies to conform to EU rules on hate speech as it prepares for next year’s European elections and the potential for more populist revolts.
