France pushes EU for increased regulation of tech giants

France is pushing for amendments to the EU's incoming regulations of tech giants - the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) - to allow member states more freedom to work against infringements and for policing content.

France, alongside a number of other EU member states such as the Netherlands, joined in the EU's campaign against tech giants such as Google relatively early in a bid to curb their monopolies over information and market dominance preventing local startups from forming.

Read more: France and Netherlands join the EU's campaign against Big Tech

French minister for digital economy Cedric O met with leading EU officials to discuss France's case.

He told the FT that they were active in attempting to speak to the right people to potentially ratify some changes in legislation.

He added: “Getting these laws passed is a major objective of ours for when France next holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council next year. They touch on vitally important subjects both for our economies and democracies.”

EU regulators, however, are cautious of larger member states exerting too much control over the legislation when they are already working nationally to implement similar laws.

In particular, French officials want amendments made to the Digital Services Act, which will stipulate transparency and responsibility in policing the type of content permitted on their platforms as a way of monitoring against potentially illegal content.

France wishes for individual member states to be able to impose fines and punishments and force tech giants to remove the offending content, regardless of whether or not such companies are currently based in those member states, with current laws putting significant pressure on Ireland and Luxembourg, where many tech giants base their European centres.

However, EU higher-ups worry this could jeopardise the EU's single market owing to companies now being privy to 27 decentralised authorities as opposed to one single entity such as the EU.

France also wants amendments to legislation to tackle the spread of disinformation, which without a legal framework, could lead to tech giants censoring information they do not like, which is a direct violation of freedom of expression.

Expansion of the DSA has taken root following former US President Donald Trump's Twitter ban in the wake of the Capitol riots on January 6, with a number of other nations such as Hungary and Poland joining in over fears that conservatives are being targeted by such companies.

Read more: Hungary to consider sanctions against tech giants

The EU is also keen for tech giants to do a better job in policing what they see as "Covid-19 fake news" - referring to the large number of conspiracy theories and disinformation spread regarding the ongoing pandemic, which they believe could undermine relief efforts.

In recent weeks, there have also been complaints from news sources regarding sites such as Google and Facebook displaying news without adequately paying for or crediting the original outlet, which many news outlets claim is exacerbating the decline of traditional print media.

In retaliation, Facebook has threatened to cease sharing news on its platform altogether should this legislation pass.

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