WHITE HOUSE WARNS STARMER: Stop threatening US tech companies’ free speech.
The White House has warned Sir Keir Starmer to stop threatening American tech companies amid mounting backlash over Britain’s online safety law.
Members of Donald Trump’s administration are monitoring the Online Safety Act with “great interest and concern” after key allies said it was censoring free speech and imposing unfair burdens on US businesses.
The law, which regulates online speech, allows the British government to levy massive fines on companies like Apple, Truth Social, and X if it finds that rules on hate speech have been broken.
Those in the president’s inner circle see the potential penalties as an unwarranted foreign intervention into American free speech.
“President Trump has made it clear that free speech is one of our most cherished freedoms as Americans,” a senior US State Department official told The Telegraph.
“Accordingly, we have taken decisive action against foreign actors who have engaged in extraterritorial censorship affecting our companies and fellow citizens.
“We will continue to monitor developments in the UK with great interest and concern.”
Meanwhile, across the Channel: French Prosecutor Rules that Social Media Platform X Is an ‘Organized Crime Group.’
The motivation is obvious: Elon Musk is playing in European politics, supporting conservative candidates, and the failing political leaders fear–rightly–that they will lose power. Things are not going well in Europe, with a huge migration problem, sexual violence against women spiking, an increase in organized crime, and stagnant economies.
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The EU has been trying to use its Digital Services Act to suppress speech both in Europe and the United States. As you may recall, Thierry Breton threatened Elon Musk with massive fines for hosting a conversation with Donald Trump during the campaign.
The EU exists to shakedown American tech companies, and has been doing so for decades, as this 2014 Reuters headline spotlights: Microsoft sued over browser miscue that led to $731 million EU fine.
Four years later, the Verge noted: Google’s European fine is a flashback to Microsoft’s ugly antitrust battle.
And don’t get Belgium started over Apple’s choice of charging cables: With Apple’s iPhone 15, the EU wins the charger war.