Archived link - https://archive.is/hXN16

If the EU had hoped that the signing of a trade deal with the US earlier this month would usher in a period of calm, it was swiftly disappointed. Less than a week later, Donald Trump was issuing new tariff threats over the bloc’s tech rulebook, and pressuring foreign countries to end the use of digital taxes. The fact that American firms hate EU tech rules and taxes is not new. Neither is the fact that they are lobbying in Washington, Dublin, Brussels and elsewhere to make their case. But what is new is the way in which Donald Trump’s administration is backing them. Just days after the Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump in the White House, where they discussed tech taxes, the president took to his Truth Social account to press foreign countries to change their laws. Alexandra Geese, a German Green MEP and one of the European Parliament’s lead negotiators on the EU’s flagship digital services act (DSA), said that tech CEOs have more sway than ever over the US administration. “We’re not talking classical lobbying,” she told the Business Post. “It’s a completely different order of magnitude. They want regime change in Europe, and the DSA is their obstacle.”…

Read more… (Archived link) - https://archive.is/hXN16

  • plyth@feddit.orgEnglish
    29·
    4 days ago

    Regarding the regime change, this is the important part:

    The DSA, which allows Brussels to step in over the heads of Irish and other national regulators to counter hate speech, disinformation or election interference, is seen by Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk and US vice-president JD Vance as censorship. “Even before the US elections, JD Vance was saying that if the EU keeps up the DSA, the US was going to pull our troops out of Nato,” Geese said. “I remember at the time I thought ‘this is completely crazy, because it’s just so over the top’. And now I’m rethinking this. And I think, well, they actually might.”