In recent years, the relationship between the European Union and large technology companies has been one of the most complex and, at the same time, crucial for the future of digital governance. Digital rights regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Digital Services Acts (DSA), have been significant attempts by Brussels to protect citizens. However, what once seemed like an internal legislative battle between Europe and Silicon Valley giants has taken on a new dimension with the direct intervention of the United States.
The attacks of the new US government Trump, with his populist, anti-regulatory approach, has found an ally in Elon Musk, who has repeatedly argued that government regulations are an obstacle to innovation, even though many of his businesses would not exist without abundant public aid.
Pressure on the EU to soften its digital rights laws has intensified recently. We saw this in the US vice president's speech at the Munich Security Conference: Vance criticized EU policies aimed at combating disinformation and illegal content on social media, comparing these laws to Soviet-era censorship. This statement came just days after Vance claimed at the Paris AI Action Summit that Europe's tech laws were holding back the development of artificial intelligence and inhibiting innovation, a position that big tech have been defending this in Brussels for years.
The pressures of big tech. US influence is a relatively recent factor, but big tech companies have been lobbying for European legislation for years. Primarily since the GDPR negotiations, internet giants have exerted a strong lobbying effort that has delayed the implementation of key laws and secured beneficial exceptions.
Despite the EU's efforts to impose clear rules to protect privacy and digital rights, tech companies have found multiple ways to circumvent regulations. The promise to rigorously enforce the GDPR, for example, has largely remained a dead letter. Despite the massive fines imposed on giants like Meta, the company has continued to defy regulations with business models that rely on massive data mining. Its Pay or Okay system, which forces users to accept advertising surveillance or pay for their privacy, is one of the strategies it uses to try to circumvent the GDPR. The actual enforcement of these fines, when they exist, has often been weak, and companies continue to operate with practices that violate data protection and privacy regulations.
The fundamental problem lies in the lack of an effective enforcement system, but above all in the active resistance of large companies. In many cases, platforms continue to extract our personal data by manipulating consent through dark patternsDeceptive interfaces, pre-selected options, and confusing design flows pressure users into accepting ad surveillance without a truly free choice. Furthermore, there is abundant evidence that they continue to collect and process data even when users try to limit it through their settings. They do this to feed their recommendation systems, which favor harmful content such as hate speech, misinformation, and so on. Personalized ads remain one of the main tools for these companies to maximize revenue, at the expense of our privacy and online security.
The power of the technobros. The phenomenon of the technobros –tech entrepreneurs who see themselves as disruptive visionaries– has established itself as a key element in the resistance to regulation and is part of a broad spectrum of neoliberal and conservative narratives that include far-right ideologies. Behind the rhetoric of these entrepreneurs lies a dangerous vision: a systematic defense of deregulation not only to maximize profits, but also to undermine the protection of fundamental rights. technobros They have become strategic allies of political forces that advocate for the denial of basic rights for millions of people. In the US context, this stance aligns with the rejection of labor, social, and human rights, seeking to dismantle the protections that defend the most vulnerable communities. Beyond US borders, these narratives extend to the denial of digital rights, such as privacy and personal data protection, favoring business models based on the massive exploitation of data, regardless of the social or political consequences.
This translates into a fight not only against digital legislation, but against any form of regulation that seeks to protect human dignity against corporate interests.
In this scenario, deregulation is presented not only as an economic issue, but as an exercise of political power, which strips citizens of their ability to demand rights. The EU should strengthen enforcement of its rules and close the loopholes that allow Big Tech to continue exploiting personal data and evading regulation. It must also confront pressure from the US, which insists on weakening these regulations to favor Silicon Valley's interests. Without an effective enforcement mechanism and truly dissuasive sanctions, manipulation, disinformation, and the abuse of digital power will continue to undermine fundamental rights and consolidate the dominance of several corporations over the lives of millions of people.
