Socialists urge EU tech chief to deliver results in blockbuster US tech probes

BRUSSELS — The Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament said Wednesday that the European Commission shouldn't stop at fining American tech giants under the bloc's digital competition rules.

The S&D group welcomed the Commission's decision to fine Apple €500 million and Meta €200 million via the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). But it also pressed EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen to conclude investigations into TikTok, Meta and Elon Musk's X under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU's flagship content moderation rulebook.

The Commission's competition chief, Socialist Teresa Ribera, has shown that "the EU can stop abuse of market power by Apple in their App Store," said Maltese S&D lawmaker Alex Agius Saliba in a statement.

He added that it's now up to Virkkunen, who hails from the center-right European People's Party (EPP), to wrap up EU investigations and crack down on U.S. tech behemoths through the DSA.

"We want to see the same approach from ... Virkkunen, when it comes to the Digital Services Act, and the conclusion of the investigation into breaches by X, TikTok and Meta of the rules that protect our citizens online," Saliba said.

Ribera and Virkkunen jointly oversee DMA enforcement, while Virkkunen has sole responsibility for DSA enforcement.

Brussels has opened content-moderation probes into companies such as X, Meta, and TikTok over a wide array of issues, such as deceptive design, failing to protect minors and election interference.

Last summer, X was found in preliminary breach of the DSA for deceptive design and insufficient access to data and transparency, but that finding hasn't led to a fine yet, feeding suspicions that Brussels is holding off because of close ties between U.S. President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk.

U.S. tech executives, like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, have pushed back against the EU's tech probes, arguing they can be compared to tariffs in a bid to tie enforcement of tech rules into Trump's unfolding trade war.

Earlier this week, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told POLITICO that the bloc stands ready to enforce its full digital rulebook, referring to probes under both the DMA and the DSA.