[News] Rejection and opportunity: this is how European leaders see Trump's digital veto

[EvKirito]

The veto of Twitter and Facebook to the accounts of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has unleashed the debate on the role of the large digital platforms and the EU has joined the global reflection by criticizing that private companies limit freedom of expression of a ruler, but he has celebrated that they recognize his role in the defense of democracy.

In recent years, especially after the jihadist attacks in Paris and Brussels and recently with the sale of fraudulent medical devices during the pandemic, the European Commission (EC) has asked platforms to remove illegal content from their servers, according to a code of good practice.

Red lines
But in the eyes of European leaders, with the blocking of the accounts of a president who has incited an assault on the United States Capitol, the platforms have crossed a red line and Brussels now hopes to contribute to its regulation at a global level with the recent law. of digital services that it presented in December, pending approval.

A spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week that she "sees the permanent closure of the US president's accounts problematic."

 

 

For Merkel, freedom of opinion "is a fundamental right of essential importance" that can be restricted only under the conditions set by legislators, but not by "the decision of the corporate management of platforms on social networks."

From the European Parliament, the president of the social democratic group, Iratxe García, tells Efe that 'it is about finding the balance between freedom of expression - which is a fundamental right - and the protection of democracy'

'The problem posed by the blocking of Donald Trump's social networks is to allow the platforms to decide where that delicate line is', because' beyond the ethical code of a private company, it should be the laws that define where hate crimes and self-serving misinformation begin. '

Speaking to Efe, the president of the Greens, Ska Keller, points out another element to this debate: "Trump, as president, could not have existed without the amplification of conspiracy theories, discrimination and hatred offered by digital platforms."

However, she believes that "the courts should have the possibility to analyze and decide whether any law has been violated."

The discordant note in this majority opinion is given by the vice president of the European Commission in charge of the digital field, Margrethe Vestager, who in an interview with the Washington Post endorses the veto of Twitter and Facebook to Trump.

'This is obviously the most extreme of extreme situations, that the President of the United States is inciting people to march against Congress. (...) I fully accept that this is an extreme situation and the lines have been exceeded, 'says liberal Vestager, who criticizes the platforms for not having acted before against Trump's messages and doing so only a few days after the end its mandate, although it says that in Europe, blocked users would have the option of going to court.

A change of paradign?
His colleague in the Community Executive, the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, is instead 'perplexed' by the fact that 'a CEO can disconnect the speaker from the US president', as he wrote in a recent article in Politician.

But he sees positive elements and believes that due to the relevance of the veto to the accounts of the US president, we are facing a change in trend regarding the role of the internet giants in defending democracy.

"Just as September 11 (2001) represented a paradigm shift in global security, twenty years later we are witnessing a before and after in the role of digital platforms in our democracy," he points out.

"They have recognized their responsibility ... to prevent the spread of illegal content," he says.

Breton is confident that with the recent digital services law that he presented in December with Vestager, the EU can contribute to global reflection on how the activity of these companies should be regulated.

That law gives authorities greater ability to ask platforms to remove illegal content and provides for fines of up to 6% of their global turnover if they do not act quickly.

Algorithms
Both García and Keller welcome the regulation - on which the European Parliament and the Council of the EU (which represents the Member States) have yet to decide - but believe that it is not enough to address the challenges posed by the digital economy.

'We also have to regulate the artificial intelligence that creates algorithms to deliver specific information to certain citizens,' says García, who stresses that 'we need to go beyond the logic of innovation and the creation of monetary value and analyze the damage that the uncontrolled use of algorithms has caused democratic values in our society.