In a podcast interview with popular host Joe Rogan, Meta-magnate Mark Zuckerberg recently called the EU's data laws "censorship" and condemned the fines as "a kind of tariffs", reports the European news agency ENR.
Zuckerberg hopes for support as Donald Trump is now returning as the President of the USA.
It's one of the things I'm most optimistic about with President Trump: he wants America to win, he said to Rogan according to news agency AFP.
Investigation against X
Both Zuckerberg and X-owner Elon Musk, as well as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, have in the past year positioned themselves close to Trump.
This raises the question of whether the EU can afford to hold on to its rules – or if continued demands and fines against US companies will be met with costly countermeasures from Trump.
So far, the EU Commission has acted cautiously. Against X, it has indeed expanded an earlier investigation and requested additional information. But it has avoided starting any verbal battles and has tried to express itself relatively neutrally.
Digital Commissioner Finnish Henna Virkkunen has contented herself with stating in writing that the EU's task is to ensure that "legislation is respected" to make the digital environment "fair, secure, and democratic".
France is furious
Much tougher words are likely to be spoken when the EU Parliament debates the issue in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Members from the center and left are demanding answers on how the EU Commission intends to act.
They have support from France.
Either the EU Commission uses the laws we have adopted to protect our public sphere with the greatest firmness, or it must give back the right to do so to the member states, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot fumed about a week ago.
The Peace Prize?
But the tech giants also have their supporters. About 40 EU Parliament members, mainly from right-wing parties, want the Parliament to invite Elon Musk to speak and call him a "pioneer in the digital revolution".
Branko Grims from Slovenia, whose party sits in the same traditionally conservative party group as the Swedish Moderate Party and Christian Democrats, has gone even further and is gathering support to nominate Musk for the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to Grims, Musk deserves the prize for "his outstanding and successful efforts to preserve freedom of expression", reports news site Euractiv.
The EU Parliament is holding a debate from 9 am on Tuesday under the title "The need to use the digital service law to protect democracy on social media platforms, including against foreign influence and biased algorithms".
The debate is also being used as a test pilot for a system to get more members to attend debates, by not predetermining who gets to speak when.
