Top EU official denies softer approach to Big Tech, cites 'very clear legal basis' for regulation
A leading EU official has denied taking a softer approach to Big Tech, citing a "very clear legal basis" for regulators and pointing to several ongoing investigations into the likes of social media platform X and Meta.
The FT reported earlier this week that the EU was reassessing investigations into Apple, Google and Meta — a process that could ultimately lead to the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, scaling back or changing the focus of their probes.
However, speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president for tech sovereignty, pushed back.
"We have our Digital Service Act that came into force a little bit more than one year ago, and there is several formal proceedings going on against, we can say, all the big platforms: Meta platforms, Instagram, Facebook, also on X and with TikTok," Virkkunen said.
"We are continuing the work, so there is not any new decisions made. So we are doing the investigations [to see] if they are complying with our rules," she said.
The Digital Services Act or DSA, which came into full effect in 2024, gives EU institutions the power to regulate Big Tech in a bid to prevent illegal and harmful activities online, and clamp down on disinformation.
Despite these new powers, however, there are growing questions about how the EU is actually going to enforce the rules, particularly in the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House.
"It remains to be seen what the EU will do, as some investigations have gone further than others, but it is also clear that U.S. tech companies will try to use the Trump administration to push back on EU rules," Dexter Thillien, lead analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC.
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