Elon Musk like Mark Zuckerberg, two American tech giants, attacked the laws put in place within the European Union to regulate digital platforms.
Faced with these criticisms, legislators called on the European Commission to react.
While a political response is awaited, several degrees of sanctions are planned.
The European Commission is under pressure. This institution responsible, among other things, for digital surveillance of the EU, is called upon to react, while criticism from Elon Musk, boss of X, or Mark Zuckerberg, director of the Meta group, is coming. In their sights, the Digital Services Act, digital legislation, adopted by the European Union and which has applied since August 25, 2023 for very large platforms and very large search engines. A look back at what this text contains and the legal arsenal available to the European executive power to enforce these laws.
What do the European texts say?
The Digital Services Act, or DSA, aims to stem illegal content and misinformation on the internet. It includes a set of rules to hold digital platforms accountable so that they fight against the dissemination of illicit, harmful content or illegal products. The platforms are also subject to transparency constraints, whether in the moderation of content, the operation of algorithms or the data collected.
Thus, contrary to what Mark Zuckerberg said during an interview with popular podcaster Joe Rogan on January 10, the text does not aim to censor its users. The DSA does not define what is legal or illegal, but requires platforms to comply with already existing laws. Thus, in France, racist or sexist insults, incitements to violence and terrorist content are prohibited, and must therefore be prohibited online.
Each Member State relies on one or more competent authorities to monitor the proper application of these rules. In France, it is Arcom. The coordinators recommend to the Commission the decisions to be taken. At the same time, the European executive power monitors very large online platforms and search engines and fines and sanctions can be imposed in the event of non-compliance with the DSA.
What sanctions?
The Commission can therefore absolutely decide to impose on the social network “fines of up to 6% of (its) global turnover”. In the event of serious and repeated violations of the regulation, platforms may even be banned from operating on the European market.
In December 2023, the European Commission decided to open an investigation against the social network messages from Musk or the far right. Likewise, in December 2024, another investigation was opened against TikTok, accused of having failed in its obligations and opening the door to possible Russian manipulation in the canceled presidential election in Romania.
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Legal tools therefore exist for the European Commission to control digital platforms. However, some legislators fear that the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House will make Brussels hesitate in applying the arsenal. While the silence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has annoyed certain European leaders, Alexandre de Streel sees caution in this, a few days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.
“There is undoubtedly a desire not to attack Trump and Musk head-on because we are afraid of the reactions”this expert in digital legislation analyzed with AFP for the Center on regulation in Europe (Cerre). Some also point out the weakness of the tools available to the Commission.
“It is not through sanctions which intervene between two and five years after a liberalization of illegal content that we will prevent elections from being manipulated or our minors from being exposed to murder. It will be difficult to be effective through sanctions, even if they are hundreds of millions of euros”judged lawyer Etienne Drouard, specialist in digital issues, as well as with the conservative media Atlantico.
