The European Union has many problems with Donald Trump‘s return to power. Challenges, if you want to be kind. And many of them are going to be played on social networks, especially on X (formerly Twitter) given the role that its owner, Elon Musk, will have in the new United States Government. It is not a surprise, but it does open a new stage in which the big technology companies favorable to the tycoon They are going to become a battleground between the EU and the United States; the first, a regulatory power. The latter, capable of launching orders in the form of tariffs and a lot of strategic pressure.
The future US vice president, JD Vance, has been this clear: there will be no tariffs against Europe as long as the Union allows it to have free rein in X, something on which its support for NATO will also depend. But the EU has powerful rules to ‘monitor’ Musk and his planssuch as the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act (DSA and DMA, for their acronym in English). At that point, in fact, it will have a key role Teresa Ribera, future European Commissioner for Competition and therefore ‘scourge’ of large technology companies such as Amazon, Meta, Google or what was once Twitter.
Trump left Twitter in part because of this EU control and under the warnings of Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who exchanged important warnings with Musk himself. Now Vance believes they have the upper hand. “So what the United States should say is: if NATO wants us to continue supporting them and NATO wants us to continue being a good participant in this military alliance, Why don’t you respect American values and respect freedom of speech?“said the vice president in a recent interview.
The EU has been assuming for years that Twitter, and even more so now with the help of Musk, is a destabilizing element, with rises in hate crimes, for example. From Washington they have taken the opposite path, despite the fact that any destabilizing element can sneak into issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukrainealthough there Trump also seems to be going in the opposite direction to Europe (although it is not yet seen with facts). A good example of the importance of
“What it probably looks like is something like the current demarcation line between Russia and Ukraine becoming a demilitarized zone, heavily fortified so that the Russians do not invade again“Vance explained in the interview, suggesting that the US route involves possible territorial transfers from kyiv to Moscow, something that Europe has never contemplated. Vance, in fact, has been one of the senators most opposed to the US continuing to supply support for Ukraine. In this support, however, NATO continues to be a decisive element and the de facto leader is Washington.
Ukraine and disinformation
At that point, Vance’s message was addressed not only to the Atlantic Alliance, but also to the EU. “I’m not going to go to a backward country and tell them how to live their lives,” added the next vice president, Trump’s right-hand man. “But European countries should in theory share American values, especially on some very basic things like freedom of speech.”
Ribera has to take note as the new Competition Commissioner. The fight is geopolitical, not just technological: we must compete with the United States and China. “There is no European Google, but that is not the real problem. We must lay some foundations for the EU to be competitive”the sources conclude; That guide is already included in the Draghi report. Andrea G. Rodríguezassociate researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), comments that this competitiveness depends on investment, the capacity for innovation and relevance.
“So, when we talk about competitiveness in the European Union, above all we are talking about it in two ways. The first way is in emerging issues, because in those markets that are going to be increasingly relevant, such as the issue of intelligence artificial. And then also the European Union also talks about competitiveness in terms of strategic autonomy“, he develops. This autonomy can only be achieved if the EU separates itself from the US in matters of Defense, for example, but that does not mean that “it has to renounce its norms,” they repeat in Brussels. Pragmatism yes, collaboration when it is necessary But not naivety, leaders have insisted since the US elections returned Trump to the White House.
There is no European Google, but that is not the real problem. We must lay foundations for the EU to be competitive
The battle regarding Twitter is on and has been going on for a few months now. For example, at the end of 2023 the European Commission announced a formal infringement procedure against X considering that it does not comply with the regulations of the Digital Services Law and that it promoted disinformation, especially in relation to Ukraine or even with respect to the European elections that were held last June. “The opening of the procedure means that we are now going to investigate X’s systems and policies related to some suspected infringements,” Brussels noted at the time.
Brussels has singled out the old Twitter for failing to meet its obligations in relation to the fight against the spread of illegal content in the EU. In particular, the European Commission focuses on risk assessment and the operation of the content notification system. Furthermore, the Commission expresses doubts about the recent user verification serviceknown as “community notes,” and criticizes other platform policies that she says are not enough to mitigate risks to public discourse and electoral processes.
The Trump Administration now wants all of that to be erased; that there are no controls. And he wants it based on threats: if there is surveillance there is no money and there may be tariffs. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) form a single set of rules applicable throughout the EU. They have two main objectives: “create a safer digital space” in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected. And also establish a level playing field to promote innovation, growth and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally. Neither Trump nor Musk, who want carte blanche, do not fit into that scale… the EU will have to decide if it is going to clash. And perhaps Ribera will have the last word.
