The victory of Donald Trump, first, and the challenge of the technology magnates, later, has emboldened the European extreme right, which feels supported on the other side of the Atlantic. Elon Musk’s push for the EU’s digital rules and Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg’s complaints of “censorship” have given wings to far-right forces during a debate on the matter in the European Parliament, where they represent about a quarter of the chamber.
“The Digital Services Act (DSA) does not serve to protect citizens but to control voters,” said MEP from Marine Le Pen’s party, Virginie Joron. “You are the ones who have been imposing your fanatical dogmas, witch hunts, professional cancellation or direct censorship for a decade. Never in the history of Europe has there been a cancellation of thought,” said Vox spokesperson Jorge Buxadé, ignoring dark times such as fascism. “When the billionaires worked for you, you didn’t care about them. Neither Musk, nor Jeff Bezos, nor Mark Zuckerberg and now that they say ‘freedom’ they are starting to worry,” he added.
“This debate comes at a very suspicious time (…) with the loss of political dominance over social networks driving the left crazy in all latitudes. When there was suffocating control through social networks establishing who could speak and what could be said, they did not want a debate like this,” said the spokesperson for the Conservatives and Reformists, Nicola Procaccini, in the same direction. The Fratelli d’Italia have taken pride in the fact that the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was the only European leader at Trump’s inauguration ceremony.
“They want to regulate freedom of expression with the DSA, but it is not going to protect democracy, on the contrary, it is a desperate attempt to guarantee that their misinformation goes unchallenged. Facebook or Google want to put an end to misinformation, they don’t want to censor their platforms and they give you a hard time. “They fear freedom of expression because it calls into question their sovereignty of opinion,” said Christine Anderson, from Alternative for Germany, the ultra party for which the owner of Tesla and Trump advisor is campaigning. Minutes earlier, the president of the European Chamber, Roberta Metsola, stopped the use of the word by turning off the microphone of a MEP from Sovereignists for Europe who ordered the silence of a parliamentarian who made a comment while he was on the platform.
The warnings of progressives
Faced with the emboldening of the far-right forces, the parliamentary group from the liberals to the left demand that the European Commission be more vigorous in the application of the rules to contain the excesses of the “technological oligarchs”. “What should be a tool of progress has become a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who seek to divide and undermine our institutions,” warned the head of the Social Democrats, Iratxe García, who assured that “interference and manipulated algorithms “They are a threat.”
“We must ask ourselves where the European Commission’s response is, where the forceful measures are to stop the abuses of technological oligarchs,” reproached the S&D spokesperson, who mentioned the possibility of imposing fines while “welcoming” the decisions made last week to expand the investigation to X by requesting information about changes to the algorithms to determine whether they reward ultras. “We have no alternative but to put a stop to networks that do not comply with the law,” he added.
“X slaps our rules, Meta abandons fact checking, “Google does not take into account our demands for transparency,” said liberal Sandro Gozi in the face of what he defined as “digital chaos.” In the same line as the socialists, he has criticized Brussels’ delay in acting in the face of the magnates’ challenge: “The Commission has to act. You have to apply the law without delays, without intermediate solutions. “Musk is a digital political financier who brings together unprecedented power and by being a member of the Trump Administration he surpasses the limits.”
The Greens have also demanded more ambition in the face of “interferences” with urgent investigations or European public social networks, which is an initiative shared by socialists and the left. “They bombard us with content that seems taken from a fascist manifesto,” said Diana Riba (ERC), who has warned of the “techno bro club” that sits “to the right” of Trump
The Left has also requested an “urgent procedure against X so that there are no disinformation campaigns or interference from Musk or Russia” in elections such as the German ones on February 23. German MEP Carola Rackete has opted to “impose sanctions” or even “disconnect” non-compliant social networks, as Brazil did with X.
While socialists, liberals and greens demand more firmness from the European Commission, in the European People’s Party they have defended what it has done so far in response to Musk, whom some governments have denounced for “foreign interference”, or Zuckerberg, who has took advantage of Trump’s return to the White House to get on that ship. “The European Commission has done and responded clearly to what has been proposed as interference. The DSA is perfectly planned and the European Commission is giving the response it should give,” Spaniard Pablo Arias has closed ranks.
The executive vice president for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, has advocated for a “strong response to interference” and has defended that 25 proceedings have already been opened against platforms and search engines. He has also highlighted the need to act neatly so that the actions do not come up against judicial reproaches and has announced that the number of personnel will be doubled to continue the application of digital laws until reaching 200 people.
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