Progressive advocacy group Public Citizen has exposed an ongoing campaign of the Trump Administration on behalf of “big tech” against the European Union (EU). This nefarious campaign aims to make the EU respect free speech. The Administration has banned former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and four other officials with European nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from traveling to the US due to U.S. objections to the EU’s censorship of American tech companies via the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA imposes strict regulations on very large online platforms (VLOPs). VLOPs are defined as those companies with over 45 million users per month. The list of VLOPs includes Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, Booking.com, and X. Among the regulations imposed on VLOPs are ones requiring them to block the posting of “information manipulation.”
The DSA does not define information manipulation. Rather, it simply bans any online speech that is “incompatible with [European] Union law or with the law of any member state.” The DSA also outlaws hate speech—which is defined as “speech intended to incite hate.” This broad definition allows EU bureaucrats to ban any speech they find distasteful. Some may say that the US government should not take action against the EU to convince them to repeal the DSA. After all, the EU is composed of sovereign states who do not have to seek permission from the U.S. government to pass regulatory laws. Any committed non-interventionist would agree with that argument.
But the DSA could justify VLOPs restricting the speech of American internet users in order to avoid that speech being shared by EU citizens—and thus violating the DSA. Forbidding EU officials from entering the U.S. may not be the most diplomatic move, but it does keep the dispute focused on the government officials who created and enforce the law. In contrast, threatening to impose tariffs on EU countries—which is the Administration’s favorite way of dealing with disagreements with foreign counties—unless the DSA is repealed would hurt American consumers and businesses.
American tech companies should do what they can to push back against laws like the DSA. For an example of how a CEO should respond to being sanctioned under the DSA, they should look to X owner Elon Musk. Last year, the EU announced it was imposing a $140 million fine on X for violating the DSA. One of the charges against X was that their blue check verification feature facilitates the use of “misleading identities.” This ignores the vital role anonymous speech has played and continues to play in the struggle for freedom.
As Justice Marshall Harlan wrote in the case of NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (1958), which upheld the right of the NAACP to protect their membership list from the segregationist Alabama government, “inviolability of privacy in group association may in many circumstances be indispensable to preservation of freedom of association, particularly where a group espouses dissident beliefs.”
After the EU announced it was fining X, Musk posted that “the EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.” President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson all joined Mr. Musk in criticizing the EU’s decision. Chair Ferguson also sent a letter to U.S. tech companies in August of 2025 informing them that censoring Americans to comply with a foreign power’s laws, demands, or expected demands can also violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Section 5 gives the agency authority to investigate and punish unlisted methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce. “American consumers do not reasonably expect to be censored to appease a foreign power and may be deceived by such actions. And as with weakened security measures, consumers might be further deceived if companies do not prominently disclose that censorious policies were adopted due to the actions of a foreign government—as consumers might not want to use a service that exposes them to censorship by foreign powers.”
It may seem unfair to punish U.S. companies for obeying another country’s laws—but this does provide a justification for the tech companies to resist the DSA. By challenging the Digital Services Act, the Trump Administration is defending free speech against the EU censors. Hopefully, they can convince the EU to reverse course and support free speech online. Maybe President Trump should offer the EU the following deal: they can keep Greenland if they let the people have free speech.
