Here’s a headline at Politico that caught my attention:
The U.S. government under incoming President Donald Trump should intervene to stop the EU from fining American tech companies for breaching antitrust rules and committing other violations, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said late Friday.
Exactly how is Trump going to “intervene” with the EU’s business? Will he invade Brussels once he’s conquered Greenland, or what? Trump can always ask the EU nicely to lay off the tech bros, of course; and the EU can and probably will tell Trump to go pound sand.
Zuckerberg complained that the EU had forced U.S. tech companies operating in Europe to pay “more than $30 billion” in penalties for legal violations over the past two decades. Last November, the tech chief’s Meta conglomerate, which operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media and communications platforms, was fined €797 million for breaching EU antitrust rules by imposing unfair trading conditions on ads service providers.
Last year the EU fined Meta 1.2 billion euros for sending users’ personal data to the U.S., I assume without the permission of the users. “The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data and other information that Meta — and other tech giants like Google — use for targeted online ads.” Stuff they get away with here.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk — having bought the U.S., apparently — is now moving on Europe. And the Europeans don’t care for it much. Newsweek reports that “Musk is being investigated in Europe amid concerns the billionaire’s influence, for instance through his posts on X, constitutes an ‘interference’ in upcoming elections.” Well, yes, it probably is. Go for it, Europe. See also EU politicians warn against Elon Musk’s incursions into European politics at ABC News.