Two rooms, two atmospheres. Led by Krzysztof Śmiszek (S&D) of Poland, 48 MEPs from The Left, Greens/EFA, and socialist benches submitted a series of questions to European Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen on Thursday, 16 January.
They are asking for tangible answers regarding the “actual or foreseeable negative effects of Elon Musk’s statements on civic discourse, electoral processes, and the freedom and pluralism of media under DSA”. They are worried about the billionaire’s stances when he is expected to soon become an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump.
Renew Europe Chair Valérie Hayer has also sent additional questions to the European Commission on the implementation of the DSA; in a post on X, she maintains, “No platform owner can use his algorithm to interfere in Europe’s electoral debates and to undermine the equality of all to freedom of expression”.
On Wednesday, Ms Virkkunen was questioned on this subject for an hour during the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. According to the media outlet Politico, Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Chair Iratxe García was far from satisfied with the commissioner’s responses and reportedly asserted that the European Commission should be “more active”, “firm”, and less “ambiguous” when applying the law on digital services to X, Meta, and TikTok.
Then again, 40 MEPs from the radical right benches sent President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola a letter calling for Elon Musk to be invited to speak during the plenary session. The MEPs believe “the motivations that have driven his groundbreaking achievements, his visionary perspective on global progress, and his insights [...] could make the EU a hub of creativity and technological advancement, again”.
In a written response sent to MEP Damian Boeselager (Greens/EFA, German) who then published the letter on X, Henna Virkkunen reiterates that the platform is already the subject of an investigation under the DSA (see EUROPE 13556/8) and that the European Commission is determined to move the case forward quickly and to “take enforcement action where necessary with regard to any other suspicions not already under investigation”.
These two diametrically opposed views of Musk and the influence of his social network, X, could have significant consequences for the EU and its institutions.
Faced with the position that Elon Musk and his compatriot Mark Zuckerberg have adopted against European regulations (see EUROPE 13556/7), the European Commission has only had a half-hearted response, and the European Parliament now appears to be clearly divided just a few days before Donald Trump’s inauguration and the US’s first decisions concerning the EU.
See the MEPs’ questions: https://aeur.eu/f/f31 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)