The abandonment of “fact-checking” by Mark Zuckerberg, now aligned with Elon Musk and Donald Trump to denounce censorship of social networks, puts pressure on the EU which will have to resist the Americans if it wants to defend its regulation of digital platforms.
Last year, the European Commission equipped itself with a vast legal arsenal to regulate its digital space, with a major text to fight against abuse of a dominant position in the economic field (the DMA), and another to stem illegal content and disinformation on the internet (the DSA).
However, since the election of Donald Trump in the United States, taking a hard line against Europe, the Brussels executive seems especially concerned not to offend Washington, while Meta (Facebook, Instagram) joined X on Tuesday in his crusade against European regulations.
The silence of President Ursula von der Leyen, certainly immobilized at home by pneumonia, but also of her commissioners, was deafening in recent days.
– EU denies censorship –
On Wednesday, however, the Commission “categorically” rejected the accusations of censorship made the day before by Mr. Zuckerberg against the EU. The DSA does not define what is legal or illegal but requires platforms to respect already existing laws which prohibit, for example in France, racist or sexist insults, incitement to violence and terrorist content.
The boss of Meta, in a movement closer to Trump and his supporters, announced that he was putting an end to “fact-checking” within his group in the United States. But Meta clarified that this judgment does not concern Europe for the moment. He says he examines his obligations in the EU before making a possible change.
According to several sources, the Californian giant sent on its own initiative on Tuesday evening to the European Commission a risk analysis report concerning its new content moderation policy.
The use of independent verifiers is not an obligation in the EU but it is a voluntary commitment which can be taken into account by the regulator as part of the platforms’ efforts to reduce the risks of manipulation of information.
AFP participates in a fact-checking program, in more than 26 languages, developed by Facebook, which pays more than 80 media outlets around the world to use their “fact-checks” on its platform, on WhatsApp and on Instagram.
“Promoting the truth is not censorship, democratic regulation is not an illegitimate obstacle,” underlined Thibaut Bruttin, director general of the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
For his part, Elon Musk is increasing his provocations on X by inviting himself into political debates in the United Kingdom and Germany. The billionaire, close to Donald Trump, will participate in a conversation on Thursday with the leader of the German far-right party AfD, broadcast on X, a month and a half before the legislative elections.
Ms. von der Leyen’s spokesperson, Paula Pinho, explained her silence on Tuesday by the desire not to give more visibility to problematic messages. “By reacting, we also fuel the debate, the political choice for the moment is not to further fuel this debate,” she said.
This apparent passivity provoked an angry reaction from Paris. The head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot urged Brussels on Wednesday to protect EU member states against interference in the European public debate.
“Either the European Commission applies with the greatest firmness the laws that we have given ourselves to protect our public space, or it does not and then it will have to agree to give back to the Member States of the EU the capacity to do it,” he said.
– “Protect our democracies” –
The silence of the Commission contrasts with the firmness displayed in December when it announced the opening of an investigation against the social network of Chinese origin TikTok, accused of having failed in its obligations and opened the door to possible manipulation Russians in the canceled presidential election in Romania.
“We must protect our democracies from all forms of foreign interference,” Ursula von der Leyen declared at the time.
“There is undoubtedly a desire not to attack Trump and Musk head-on because we are afraid of the reactions,” considers Alexandre de Streel, an expert in digital legislation for the Center on regulation in Europe (Cerre).
“If the Commission opened a procedure against Musk it would add more than fuel to the fire,” also notes Umberto Gambini, a partner in the consulting company Forward Global, specializing in European affairs. The implementation of the DSA “remains very political”, according to him.
This also applies to the DMA. According to several sources, Ms. von der Leyen’s cabinet recently froze the announcement of a fine against Apple for anti-competitive practices out of concern not to damage transatlantic ties.
An investigation was opened against
In this area, violations are “very difficult to prove,” explains Mr. de Streel, for whom the DSA “probably does not go far enough” to regulate the Internet.
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