European leaders vows not to be bullied on digital safety laws

With U.S. politicians cranking up the rhetoric over online safety legislation across the pond, EU leaders are clapping back. Reuters reports that both France and Germany have made statements defending their right to adopt EU legislation, and even threatening retaliation to any perceived coercion by the U.S., which has floated the possibility of sanctions.  

French President Emmanuel Macron makes his position clear: “we won’t let anyone else decide for us.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz agrees, saying “we are doing this for our own interest and solely for our own interest, and we will certainly not be guided by statements that perhaps consider completely different, even no, regulation necessary.” 

Other voices in the EU and UK are issuing similar warnings. Writing in the Guardian, Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner for digital affairs, responds to U.S. sanctions over the DSA by asking, “how long are we, citizens of the EU, going to tolerate these threats? Submit to those who want to impose their rules, their laws, their deadlines on us?” 

Breton writes of “an ever-widening gulf of misunderstanding is opening up between Europe and the United States on digital regulation.” In his view, the U.S. push against regulation is naive:   

“regulating the information space is not optional: it is a sine qua non for turning the narrow mercantile logic of a few into a genuine contribution towards human progress and the common good.”

“Let us be absolutely clear: regulating the digital space has never been, and will never be, an assault on freedom of expression. On the contrary, this freedom has always been a legitimate concern and a core demand of the European parliament.” 

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s antitrust chief, shares Breton’s spirit of resistance. In comments to the Financial Times, Ribera says the EU “cannot be subject to the will of a third country.” She cautions against cautioning against the “temptation of being subordinated to others’ interests.” 

“American tech companies are making great profits out of this market, but they are subject to the same laws and regulations as any other player.” Ribera, who is also the EU’s executive vice president and second-in-command, is vowing to defend Europe’s legal sovereignty and, if necessary, to pull back on the trade agreement signed with the U.S. in July. 

Ofcom tackles more porn sites

As UK regulator Ofcom fends off jabs from the U.S. over its Online Safety Act, it also continues to pursue enforcement action – and to try and quell local concerns about overreach. 

In an announcement from late July, Ofcom says it has “opened formal investigations into whether the following providers have highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography across 34 websites: 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd.” 

The firms, whose websites collectively reach 9 million users, “have been prioritized based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operate and their user numbers.” 

The success of Ofcom’s mission depends heavily on it being able to chase noncompliance across the board. A recent piece in the Washington Post reports that porn sites ignoring the OSA have seen explosions in traffic, while traffic to compliant sites has dipped. 

Steam to accept only credit card-based age assurance

The Verge reports that video game platform Valve has started to comply with the OSA, by “rolling out a requirement for all Brits to verify their age with a credit card to access ‘mature content’ pages and games on Steam. UK users won’t even be able to access the community hubs of mature content games unless a valid credit card is stored on a Steam account.”

Valve has opted to use credit card age verification exclusively, stating that “among all age assurance mechanisms reviewed by Valve, this process preserves the maximum degree of user privacy.” Since the UK requires credit card holders to be 18 or over, anyone with a linked credit card is considered verified. Anyone without a credit card will be unable to access restricted content. 

Digital activists fear how laws will be used by right wing

An article in Rolling Stone suggests that the situation in the UK and EU could soon happen in the U.S., as well. The story throws into relief an odd irony in the U.S. age assurance debate: while conservative ideas often fuel state-level age laws restricting pornography, there is a simultaneous push by conservatives against age laws that would apply to social media. 

Meanwhile, digital rights activists worry that those same ideologies fuel a desire to leverage online safety laws for political advantage. The magazine quotes Shoshana Weissmann, digital director and fellow at policy think tank R Street Institute, who “notes that many age-verification bills, which are justified as a way to keep minors from accessing content that is sexually explicit, have language that could easily restrict educational or medical content – like info on menstruation, safer sex, or gender affirming care.” 

It also quotes the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Molly Buckley, who points to the current political environment in the country as a potential risk. “Imagine if Texas had a database of everyone who looked at LGBTQ resources, or a form of everyone who looked up how to get an out-of-state abortion,” she says. “Imagine if ICE had information about which users could not provide a form of ID.”

Article Topics

age verification  |  Digital Services Act  |  EU age verification  |  Europe  |  Ofcom  |  Online Safety Act  |  UK age verification