EU-kommissær for det indre marked, Thierry Breton, under en pressekonferanse i Brussel den 15. desember 2020. Foto: Olivier Matthys / Pool via AP / NTB.

Mediene slår opp at Merkel synes det var uklokt å kaste Trump ut av Twitter, men i virkeligheten står EU for en enda hardere linje enn USA, selv om USA nå gjør sitt beste for å gå forbi EU.

Kommissær for det indre marked, Thierry Breton, kom med noen oppsiktsvekkende uttalelser etter urolighetene i Kongressen 6. januar. Breton, som er tidligere fransk finansminister, sa det var sosiale mediers 9/11 og ba om samarbeid for å rydde opp.

Breton sa at tech-selskaper ikke lenger kan gjemme seg bak sin teknologiske plattformrolle. Det er vel ikke akkurat det inntrykket publikum har.

The EU Commissioner wrote in POLITICO, that tech companies “can no longer hide their responsibility toward society by arguing that they merely provide hosting services.”

Breton kaller forholdene på sosiale medier for vill vest. Han ønsker seg åpenbart noen sheriffer som kan rydde opp. Jack Dorsey og Mark Zuckerberg er for bløte?

“The unrest in Washington is proof that a powerful yet unregulated digital space — reminiscent of the Wild West — has a profound impact on the very foundations of our modern democracies,” Brenton proclaimed.

“Last week’s insurrection marked the culminating point of years of hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation and destabilization strategies that were allowed to spread without restraint over well-known social networks,” he added.

The Eurocrat called on the incoming Biden administration in the U.S. to “join forces, as allies of the free world” to craft a “new global approach to online platforms”.

“Just as 9/11 marked a paradigm shift for global security, 20 years later we are witnessing a before-and-after in the role of digital platforms in our democracy,” he said.

Breton viste til to direktiv som han har hjulpet til med å få utarbeidet:

Breton pointed to two proposed EU directives, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act — both of which he has personally helped craft — as frameworks for policing online content.

Biden har kalt demonstrantene i Washington 6. januar for terrorister. Det ligger an til et godt samarbeid.

Breton er tilhenger av en sterk stat, i kjent fransk tradisjon:

“Our European laws and courts will continue to define what is illegal, both offline and online — from child pornography to terrorist content, from hate speech to counterfeiting, from incitement to violence to defamation — through democratic processes and with appropriate checks and balances,” he wrote.

The EU Commissioner said that with the introduction of the DSA, the bloc has made its “opening move”, but went on to argue that the challenges posed by freedom of speech on the internet are “global in nature”.

He went on to argue that the “dogma anchored in section 230” — a provision of the American Communications Decency Act of 1996 which provides liability protections for social media companies, protecting them from being sued for the content users post on their platforms — “has collapsed”.

Therefore, Mr Breton called for increased government control of social media platforms, saying: “Regardless of whether silencing a standing president was the right thing to do, should that decision be in the hands of a tech company with no democratic legitimacy or oversight?”

‘Capitol Hill is the 9/11 Moment of Social Media’ — EU Commissioner Calls for Govt Control of the Internet