Zuckerberg and Musk: EU tech commissioner rebuffs censorship accusations
The Digital Services Act isn't censorship, says Commission VP Virkkunen, addressing US tech giants' criticism. MEPs criticize her "business as usual" approach.
(Image: Cristian Storto/Shutterstock.com)
Over the past few days, the EU Commission has had little to counter the claims made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X CEO Elon Musk about allegedly entrenched censorship through the Digital Services Act (DSA). However, Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the Brussels government institution responsible for technological sovereignty and democracy, emphasized: "We know that this is not true." In Europe, freedom of expression is "one of our core values", Virkkunen told Politico magazine. This is also respected and protected in the DSA. It is therefore "very misleading" to claim the opposite.
"In Europe, there are more and more laws that institutionalize censorship and make it difficult to build anything innovative there," Zuckerberg criticized last week when he announced the end of fact-checkers at the meta-subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram in the US. Musk, a close advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump, has been constantly repeating similar accusations for several months.
Virkkunen also indicated to Politico that he would consider extending the ongoing EU investigation into whether Musk's Platform X has violated the EU's social media rules. The Commission's probe has so far mainly focused on the lack of transparency and access for researchers as well as the use of dark patterns. Virkkunen now wants to check whether the scope is sufficient: she will not hesitate to take further steps if necessary. According to the DSA, X must assess and mitigate the risks that these contributions pose "for our electoral processes and civil discourse".
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MEPs: Commission not doing its job
For some MEPs, the Commission's activities do not go far enough. Alexandra Geese (Greens) spoke on Monday of "obvious election interference" through Musk's tweets. The Commission must "urgently initiate thorough investigations into all major digital platforms relevant to the formation of political opinion". Christel Schaldemose (Socialists and Democrats) called on the Commission last week to tighten up DSA enforcement and to "tackle things faster" and more proactively. Representatives of other political groups are also not satisfied with the Commission's pace.
(vbr)
