It appears that the Donald Trump administration is ready to fight with the European Union and the UK over the fate of online speech.
Trump signed a memorandum Feb. 21 titled “Defending American Companies and Innovators from Overseas Extortion and Unfair Fines and Penalties.” The president bashed foreign governments that “have increasingly exerted extraterritorial authority over American companies, particularly in the technology sector.” He then issued orders for shielding U.S. companies from alleged extortion. The memorandum specifically cited the war on free speech and ordered an investigation into it. This comes as the EU and the U.S. government propose wildly different plans for regulating online speech, and European governments demand compliance from American companies such as Meta.
Meta global policy chief Joel Kaplan has indicated the company’s hope that the Trump administration step in and assist it in its fight against aggressive EU censorship policies. Although Meta previously complied with these policies, it has more recently been objecting to them.
Trump in his memorandum specifically objected to “digital services taxes (DSTs) that could cost American companies billions of dollars and that foreign government officials openly admit are designed to plunder American companies.”
The president also ordered the Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and the United States Trade Representative to “investigate whether any act, policy, or practice of any country in the European Union or the United Kingdom has the effect of requiring or incentivizing the use or development of United States companies’ products or services in ways that undermine freedom of speech and political engagement or otherwise moderate content.”
The memorandum additionally asks Bessent, Lutnick and the U.S. Trade Representative to “recommend appropriate actions to counter such practices under applicable authorities.”
This comes as an apparent response to the uptick in arrests for exercising free speech in the UK and EU countries like Germany.
Indeed, Trump is not the only U.S. politician to object to European over-regulation of American companies. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) challenged the EU to provide information on regulation of U.S. companies, according to the New York Post.
“We write to express our concerns that the [Digital Markets Act] may target American companies, and we request a briefing to understand the commission’s approach to enforcing the DMA,” Jordan and antitrust subcommittee chair Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) wrote to EU antitrust official Teresa Ribera.
The DMA’s targets are Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Booking.com, TikTok’s parent ByteDance, and Microsoft, according to the Post.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
