European Commission President Tells Social Media Giants to Follow Its Digital Rules
Written by Finbarr Toesland Thu 24 Apr 2025
Global social media firms, including Meta, Tiktok and X, have been warned by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, that the EU will seek to enforce its Digital Markets Act on all firms equally.
A number of the EU’s digital rules, including the Digital Services Act (DSA), have faced heavy criticism from prominent US politicians, such as Vice President JD Vance, who claims they hamper innovation and censor speech.
“The rules voted by our co-legislators must be enforced. That’s why we’ve opened cases against TikTok, X, Apple, Meta just to name a few. We apply the rules fairly, proportionally, and without bias. We don’t care where a company’s from and who’s running it. We care about protecting people,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.
In February, President Trump signed a memorandum that agreed to scrutinise the impact of both the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act. Elon Musk, owner of social media platform, X, and a major Trump backer, was not directly mentioned by von der Leyen, but the statement “we don’t care where a company’s from and who’s running it” has been viewed as a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency head.
Following a probe by the European Commission, the level of fines levied against X is now being considered, with a fine as high as $1 billion (£751.4 million) being mentioned by the New York Times. The EU have introduced these digital rules in an effort to level the playing field and ensure clarity on regulations, but their scope and implementation have been criticised.
A final decision will soon be made by the EU on if Apple and Meta have broken antitrust rules, with this being considered pivotal in the power of EU regulation.
Written by Finbarr Toesland Thu 24 Apr 2025