The Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission has warned that the European Union’s Digital Services Act risks excessively restricting freedom of expression.
In the latest proof of the growing divide between Europe and America over the control of online content, Brendan Carr told last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: “There is some concern that I have with respect to the approach that Europe is taking with the DSA in particular… something that is incompatible with both our free speech tradition in America and the commitments that [our] technology companies have made to a diversity of opinions.
“If there is an urge in Europe to engage in protectionist regulations, to give disparate treatment to US technology companies, the Trump administration has been clear that we are going to speak up and defend the interests of US businesses.”
Mr Carr is the second high-ranking US official in recent weeks to challenge European regulations. In February, Vice President JD Vance denounced content moderation at an AI summit in Paris, calling it “authoritarian censorship”.
President Trump has made free expression a central theme of his presidency, signing an executive order on his first day in office to “restore freedom of speech and end censorship”. Mr Carr echoed this stance in Monday’s address: “From President Trump to me, across the government, we are encouraging our technology companies to stop the censorship we saw the last couple of years.”
The European Commission’s Thomas Regnier rejected Mr Carr’s comments, maintaining that the censorship allegations against the DSA are completely unfounded. “The aim of our digital legislation, for example the DSA, is the protection of fundamental rights,” Mr Regnier said. “We all agree on the need to ensure that the internet is a safe place, as VP Vance put it at the AI Action Summit in Paris.”
The DSA, which became effective a year ago, is designed to make the online environment safer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content including ‘hate speech’. But Washington remains highly suspicious about who gets to define it. President Trump has already signed a memorandum warning that his administration would scrutinise the Act – and last week Mr Carr asked US tech companies for briefings on how they planned to reconcile the DSA with America’s free speech commitments.
One suggested solution is ‘geofencing’ – restricting content by region – to create separate geographical platforms for EU compliance and US lack of censorship. Mr Carr, however, pointed out that it’s unclear whether this is technically or economically feasible.
And that’s before we get to the question of whether it’s desirable.
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