On Tuesday 14 January, the new Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR) (see other news), Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, welcomed the recent statements and decisions by the heads of the Meta group, Mark Zuckerberg, and the X group, Elon Musk.
“We need freedom of speech and freedom of expression to be real”, he said. Noting that 90% of the media in Poland are now controlled by Donald Tusk’s ‘left-liberal’ government, he said he was “very happy” that there were digital platforms that did not restrict access and allowed political leaders to express their opinions.
The former Polish Prime Minister also advocated a strong transatlantic relationship under the ‘Trump II’ presidency. A delegation of European conservatives will also be travelling to Washington for Donald Trump’s inauguration next Monday.
In the European Parliament, where a special debate will be held next week in Strasbourg, the positions of the political groups are very fragmented on the attitude to adopt to the attacks by the heads of American platforms on the ‘DSA’ Regulation governing digital services in the European Union (see EUROPE 13556/7).
In contrast to the position of the conservatives and the far right, who wanted to award Mr Musk the 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the Christian Democrats, liberals and progressive groups put the emphasis on compliance with European rules, which they say in no way restrict freedom of expression.
The EPP believes that Europeans will soon face a moment of truth and will have to act to defend – basically – their way of life. The Christian Democrats say that they have nothing against the opinions of digital platform entrepreneurs, but that they refuse to live in a world where new technology oligarchs dictate the rules of the game.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the Chair of the Renew Europe Group, Valérie Hayer of France, said that it was the European Commission’s responsibility to apply the DSA Regulation. “We must uphold our rights and under no circumstances allow ourselves to be pushed around”, she declared. She also called for an exchange between MEPs and Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Musk and the head of TikTok.
Last week, a number of German Social Democrats called for the EU to take a tough stance on the supervision of digital platforms and called for a ‘Euro Stack Act’ to strengthen the EU’s technological independence (see EUROPE 13554/3). (Original version by Mathieu Bion with Solenn Paulic and Florent Servia)