EU vows to enforce tech rules, despite Trump pressure

The EU will keep enforcing its tech regulations across the bloc, its digital chief Henna Virkkunen said Monday, despite threats from US President Donald Trump.

The rules protect rights including freedom of expression, she posted on X, adding: “I will keep enforcing them, for our kids, citizens and businesses.”

Brussels has already asserted its “sovereign right” to regulate the activities of tech giants wanting access to the European Union’s 450 million well-off consumers.

Its two main pieces of legislation—the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA)—aim to keep harmful content off the internet and ensure fair competition.

But Trump, who has shaken up global trade by imposing tariffs on America’s trading partners, has threatened to add levies on those he accuses of targeting US tech companies.

Virkkunen posted a link to a letter addressed to US Congress reiterating that the DSA and DMA were EU legislation with “no extraterritorial jurisdiction in the US or any other EU country.”

She countered claims that the EU rules amounted to “censorship”—made by the US State Department and detractors such as Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg—by stressing that the DSA upholds freedom of expression.

Its focus was to protect consumers, including against scams and fraud, “but also on defending our democracies and deliberate manipulation campaigns aimed at undermining free and fair elections.”

Virkkunen also objected to Congress inviting her predecessor in the previous European Commission, Thierry Breton, to appear before US lawmakers.

Breton last week declined the invitation.

© 2025 AFP