#digital-services-act

#digital-services-act

Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny (and punishment) under the European Commission's Digital Services Act, Reuters reports. Because the app's broadcasting feature WhatsApp Channels grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply.

The European Commission is intensifying its investigation into X due to the way in which the AI tool Grok is being used to generate sexualized deepfakes. This follows a series of recent reports from France, as previously reported by Techzine , which show that Grok generated explicit sexual images involving children. The case has led to criminal proceedings by the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office. In addition, French ministers are calling for the regulator ARCOM to be involved under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterised the individuals as radical activists who had advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states against American speakers and American companies. For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship, he added.

Getty Images The US State Department said it would deny visas to five people, including a former EU commissioner, for seeking to "coerce" American social media platforms into suppressing viewpoints they oppose. "These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states - in each case targeting American speakers and American companies," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Trump slams 120 million ($140 million) EU fine on X Musk has also denounced the penalty EU cites transparency and data-access breaches US officials say EU is targeting American firms Speaking at the White House, Trump said that Europe was "very bad, very bad for the people" and warned that the United States did not want the continent "to change so much." He did not specify what he meant, but said Europe "has to be very careful doing a lot of things."

The billionaire unleashed a barrage of posts on X, boosting claims that cast Brussels as censorious, corrupt, and anti-democratic - just days after the bloc fined his platform €120 million ($140 million) over the "deceptive design" of its blue checkmarks. In one post, Musk asked followers: "How long before the EU is gone?" AbolishTheEU. In another instance, he backed a call for binding referendums on whether countries should remain in the bloc, describing it as a "good idea."

The European Commission, the EU's executive branch responsible for enforcing the bloc's laws, just hit X with a fine of 120 million euros (about $140 million) for breaking transparency obligations under its Digital Services Act. Specifically, the Commission has taken issue with the platform's deceptive design of its blue checkmark verification badges, as well as a lack of transparency around its advertisers.

A third of the fine came from one of the first moves Musk made when taking over Twitter. In November 2022, he changed the platform's historical use of a blue checkmark to verify the identities of notable users. Instead, Musk started selling blue checks for about $8 per month, immediately prompting a wave of imposter accounts pretending to be notable celebrities, officials, and brands.

"Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. "The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the way to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA's first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability."

"As one of the first countries in the EU, Denmark is now taking a groundbreaking step towards introducing age limits on social media," said the country's digitalization ministry in a statement. "This is done to protect children and young people in the digital world." "As a starting point, children under the age of 15 should not have access to platforms that may expose them to harmful content or harmful features," the statement said.

The EC also said it preliminarily found that both Meta and TikTok violated their DSA obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data. "The Commission's preliminary findings show that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok may have put in place burdensome procedures and tools for researchers to request access to public data. This often leaves them with partial or unreliable data, impacting their ability to conduct research, such as whether users, including minors, are exposed to illegal or harmful content," the announcement said.

There is pressure, fair enough, but this is not about US companies, but about the misuse of market power, no matter where the headquarters are,

Vice-President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen said on Friday that the EU executive branch is demanding information from US platforms Apple, Snapchat, Google, and YouTube over allegations of insufficient child protection. While the European Union has strict regulations governing online spaces, including limits on what children can access online, concern is growing that current measures are not enough to address the problem.

The US House Judiciary Committee held hearings today as X announced that it would appeal its High Court loss over regulation by Coimisiún na Meán

Major tech companies including Meta, X and Google have their European bases in Ireland, meaning they fall under the remit of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). "I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country's Exports to the USA," Mr Trump said in the post.