Trump’s tech bros pose ‘existential threat’ to EU, says Brussels

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/15/trump-tech-bros-existential-threat-to-eu-social-media/

45 comments

  1. ***The Telegraph reports***:

    “The European Union treats us very badly, and they have for years,” Donald Trump told the reporters in the Oval Office as Ireland’s taoiseach shifted uncomfortably in his seat next to him.

    The US had slapped the EU with 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium a few hours earlier. But the next front in the trade war will be fought over American tech giants such as X, Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.

    Cheered on by “tech bros” including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who have rallied to support Trump, the US is heaping pressure on the EU to water down its disinformation rules for the social media titans or face more painful tariffs.

    Brussels sources believe this is nothing less than an assault on the EU’s “regulatory sovereignty” and one that poses an “existential” threat to Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission.

    The first shots were fired in February. In a naked attempt to influence foreign legislation, Mr Trump issued a memorandum threatening tariffs against countries that imposed “overseas extortion and unfair fines and penalties” on US tech firms, which include some of the world’s most valuable companies.

    Later that month in Munich, JD Vance, the US vice-president, evoked a culture war over tech. He likened EU officials regulating disinformation online to Soviet Union “commissars” crushing freedom of speech with red tape and warned the new White House expected its allies to share its “values”.

    On Friday, Mr Musk, now working for the administration, posted a picture on X of the EU flag with a yellow hammer and sickle in its blue centre and the motto: “Imagine you love so much being governed that you want a government for your government.”

    The European Commission takes great pride in the “Brussels effect”, the tractor beam of its legislation and single market which pulls other jurisdictions into alignment with its rules.

    It is ready to fight to protect its freedom to write the rules as it sees fit for a single market of 460 million consumers.

    “If needed, the EU will respond swiftly and decisively to defend its rights and regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures,” Thomas Regnier, commission spokesman for tech sovereignty, told The Telegraph.

    “The EU and its member states […] have the sovereign right to regulate economic activities on their territory, consistently with our democratic values, our social market economic model and with our international commitments.”

    **Full story:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/15/trump-tech-bros-existential-threat-to-eu-social-media/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/15/trump-tech-bros-existential-threat-to-eu-social-media/)

  2. Time for the EU to start working on cutting theirselves loose from these tech companies. Easier said than done, I know, but in the long term we’ll be glad if we pull it off. Social media has shown its poisonous side often enough to prove that we need an alternative(or to get rid of it), the timing will never be convenient so we might as well start now

  3. There is a simple solution.

    Ban all algorithmic content presentation in social media platforms. You see who and what you follow, nothing else.

  4. Some tech alternatives here like email providers, maps, search engines, browsers etc (though not everything can yet be replaced):
    [https://european-alternatives.eu/](https://european-alternatives.eu/)

    ~~Uber (US)~~ -> Bolt (Estonia)
    ~~Doordash & Wolt (US)~~ -> Any local food delivery service
    ~~FedEx (US)~~ -> DHL (Germany) or any other local service

  5. Companies are now bigger than governments. These companies have bought a government in a tactic to gain business advantage. Hopefully it is not too late to fix the problem.

  6. I mean, those tech firms don’t have to have a presence in the EU, they can just leave if they think EU regulation doesn’t fit their company. But of course they want to suck every penny out of the EU without having to abide by any local laws, and in the meantime make sure they get their fascist buddies elected, so they can maintain their profitable position.

  7. So Musk makes fun with “Imagine you love being governed so much that you need government for your government”, but how the duck does he think the United States actually work?

  8. simple answer. . .cut them out like a cancer and develop an alternative.

    Its not like Europe doesnt have the capability… my concern is why this is still a talking point, we should have made short shrift of these despots a long time ago!

  9. What harm can it be using tech from the same country this entire time that doesn’t follow EU laws

  10. Cut them out of EU if they don’t follow EU rules. That’s it.

  11. This is Russian hybrid warfare at work

    Tea party, brexit, maga, all the he right wing parties popping up in Europe- all Russian social engineering against the west

  12. > Meta is being scrutinised over suspected disinformation before the European Parliament elections. 

    I remember seeing meta announce that they’re quiting all information validation just a bit before Trump stepped into an office. It was pretty clear that shit will go down fast.

  13. It does make total sense. The tariffs are being placed so that these “tech bros” get their tax cuts.

    The best response is to get back at them is to gain the lost revenue through retaliatory measure like :

    1. Place tariffs on Teslas.

    2. Apply relevant laws on whichever “tech bros” intervene in the democratic elections.

    3. Tighter regulations on the social media platforms. This is a long time coming as the negative impact on the users is widely acknowledged. Eg: One can ban these until proper content moderation is implemented.

    4. Anti-competitive practices that are widely followed by the tech companies are to be appropriately punished.

    5. Bots and propaganda. Force the tech companies to act on it.

    6. Stricter data privacy laws. This can be very critical with the advent of AI models and their need for big data to train the models.

    Things like these will improve the life of an average person in general and will also pay for the tariffs that are in place.

  15. Social media should also have identities verified against a document or ID. Everyone has the right to free speech, but there needs accountability and verification.

    Only see who you follow and the ability to be held accountable for what you say and do is a must. It would also stop under age accounts and impersonation or spam.

    If you want to spout hate you can on X, but I’d much rather a platform where opinions came from folks who were happy to put their identity to it

  18. We need a replacement for WhatsApp, we talk about instagram and other apps, but this one is the most crucial.

  20. Did you all notice that whatever they say is foreshadowing what’s happening in US right now 😂

  21. Hmmm, Trump is in the office for over a month. Has EU or any of its member states passed or at least presented a law to get own tech bros via easy IT industry propping? No? Well, back to concerns and prayers

  22. It’s beyond obvious they are not his “tech bros”.

    Just as seen so many times in history, they are rich businessmen with very considerable public power that were paying their respects (kissing up) to the new mad king in order to get preferential treatment, and to avoid his anger if they didn’t.

  23. Too many bots are spreading disinformation online. Freedom of speech is for people. Machines do not have that right. We need to make it illegal for a bot to pose as a human online.

  24. Here are 14 common characteristics of fascism and Nazi ideology:

    Extreme nationalism – The nation is seen as superior to others.

    Dictatorial leadership – One leader holds absolute power.

    Militarism – A strong military is glorified and prioritized.

    Suppression of opposition – Dissent is crushed through censorship, violence, or imprisonment.

    Propaganda control – Media is manipulated to serve the regime.

    Cult of personality – The leader is idolized like a god.

    Racism and xenophobia – Certain ethnic or racial groups are deemed inferior.

    Scapegoating – Blaming minorities or outsiders for national problems.

    Anti-democracy – Elections are rigged, or democracy is abolished.

    Corporate-government alliance – Big businesses work closely with the regime.

    Traditionalism and sexism – Strict gender roles and rejection of modern values.

    Glorification of violence – War and aggression are encouraged.

    Anti-intellectualism – Science and critical thinking are suppressed.

    Mythic past obsession – A golden age is romanticized as a goal to restore.
    .(Please copy and forward it)

  25. Time to disconnect X, Tesla, and Starling as soon as possible.

  26. The politician and other institutions can have their own “Twitter” bullshit and get off X for a start instead of just talking and saying in Musk Virtual Kingdom

  27. EU to stop this shit just need to do the following steps.
    1) build a EU social media
    2) build a EU OS based on Linux (free)
    3) Say to them : follow our rules or get the fuck out of EU

    Extra step just to fuck even more, tax every byte of information of EU citizens that exits EU to non EU countries.

  30. This is what needs to happen. Bring the heat to those that have started the fire.

  32. Just apply the already existing laws! They exist. I fucking hate just how gutless or corrupt or bought politicians are.

  33. Yeah the US should leave EU with that brainless MAGA shit. I don’t want my kids to be this stupid and use “Jesus” or “Woke” for an excuse for everything stupid and unrational.

  34. This isn’t primarily about the tech companies. This is a broad assault on the EU regulatory frameworks and authorities. The US wants to deregulate their already inferior regulatory institutions. But they also want to sell their – soon to be even worse products – to the EU without adapting to EU rules.

    This is outlined in project 2025 where they show significant animosity towards the EU data protection mechanisms and state they wish to have exchangeable regulatory frameworks to make trade smooth (p. 800).

    My conclusion is the us should fuck off and try to care about their citizens instead of their corporate overlords for once.

  35. Just bought EU tech stocks. Time to invest in Europe.

  37. There was a fine and functional interwebs before and we can do it again.

  38. The only tech stuff I really don’t want to miss is Amazon and some Google stuff.
    Twitter, Meta, Tesla does nothing of value to me.

  39. Flood algorithmic social media with bots that engage across all political alignments.

    Have randomly assigned timeouts where after a few months, a bot will go and post in as many places as it can that it is a bot and has been engaging actively for <x> months.

    Eventually, people will be seeing these confessions everywhere. Advertisers will start realizing that at any given time they don’t know who’s a bot and who’s not. And because the bots are confessing, and are infiltrating all spaces, the entire space starts feeling untrustworthy.

    Do this at the same time as releasing a non algorithmic counterpart. Capitalize on anti us sentiment.

    I think it could do well and I think if countries implemented these bots on a large scale, these platforms would become unusable

  41. I really don’t get it why everyone is waiting for the EU or governments taking actions to prevent stupid people from doing stupid things?
    Tech giants such as X, Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon are not essential for your living and you can just make a point by unsubscribing yourself and stop being the product which is allowing those companies threatening us! Nobody is forcing you and it’s about every individual.
    It’s just as simple if everyone would just really care about themselves 😉

  42. For what it’s worth, they pose an existential threat here as well

  44. Some of these companies can be cut off tomorrow with generally positive effects; facebook, for example.

    Others can be pushed out with a gradually increasing tax. Microsoft. 5% per year, increasing 5% per year.

    Also, triple down on making sure they pay their local taxes in full. Not their fishy “we didn’t make a dime in profits” but a calculated value tax.

    Also, don’t let them buy EU tech IP anymore.

  45. Let’s just ban them like everyone says and then continue writing long reports why EU is falling behind US and Asia. /s

    We need to create a better business, investing and working environment than the US. Each of those areas are substantially worse here. We can’t win because we don’t even know what we are doing now is bad.

Comments are closed.