Digital Rebellion

Fight between Big Tech and governments becomes geopolitical

“Geopolitics is driving new products from Big Tech, which could become battlegrounds of the future.”

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When Elon Musk prepared to hold a live conversation with Donald Trump on X, formerly Twitter, something unexpected occurred. On the other side of the Atlantic, Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for internal market, who has rallied against Big Tech for years, stepped in. He warned Musk against a discussion that promotes certain kinds of content, like disinformation, hatred, or incitement of violence. The response, from Musk, was an expletive meme from Tropic Thunder, a Hollywood movie.

What makes the situation so stunning, was that the EU was attempting to control the conduct of an American platform, in America itself, in the middle of a US presidential election. Brussels was crossing into another nation’s borders, attempting to lay down its own law, as Breton invoked the recently passed “Digital Services Act” in Europe when talking to Musk.

And, equally shocking, Breton was taking up such a position over a conversation between Musk and the former president of the United States, and the Republican presidential nominee, who Breton may have to deal with come November.