The European Union Regulates While America Innovates: Jake Morabito in The OC Register
Jake Morabito, ALEC’s Communications and Technology Task Force Director, recently authored an op-ed in The Orange County Register detailing the differences in social media platforms regulations in the U.S. and the E.U.
Social media is buzzing with the launch of Twitter’s latest competitor, Threads, a text-based social platform developed by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp parent company Meta. As Americans download the new app, would-be European Union (EU) users in nations like Germany, France, and Ireland will have to wait, thanks to stifling EU restrictions. American politicians clamoring to import these policies should take note.
Officials at Ireland’s Data Protection Commission confirmed that Meta “has no plans to roll out the service in the EU at present,” while Threads is already live in the United States and the United Kingdom. This development should come as no surprise considering the recent deluge of EU regulations laser-focused on American tech firms.
On July 4, the day before Threads launched, the European Commission revealed the first companies designated as so-called “Gatekeepers” under the new Digital Markets Act (DMA). As many predicted, five top U.S. tech firms led the list: Alphabet (parent company of Google and YouTube), Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. ByteDance (the Chinese parent company of TikTok) and South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung rounded out the initial batch of “Gatekeeper” designees.