A year ago, shares in Meta Platforms, Inc., owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, were trading at close to $350. Now, they are valued at less than $115. Following this loss of nearly 70% of its value, Meta has laid off thousands of employees, as have many other tech companies, including Microsoft, Intel and Snapchat.
In December 2020, the European Commission presented the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) as “milestones in our journey to make Europe Fit for the Digital Age”.
Today’s expected agreement on the Digital Markets Act is essential to crack market dominance in digital markets. However, if negotiators fail to agree on effective tools to get under the skin of the underlying business model of advertising, we risk not only stifling of innovation and poor data protection but on top of that also societal harms, such as disinformation and hate speech, write René Repasi and Paul Tang.
The West is involved in at least two wars in Ukraine: a military war and an information war. Meanwhile, governments pressure the largest social media platforms as they are the biggest battleground for the information war, writes Maria Luisa Stasi.
There is a 19th-century Russian saying - “to earn a rouble and keep one’s honour” - which applied with irony to people who try to do good, play by the rules and still receive personal gain. Like so many others in the past, the world's tech giants failed at both when Russia invaded Ukraine, writes Janusz Cieszyński.
It’s a global issue. It’s an existential threat to our way of life. And it threatens the collapse of entire ecosystems.
The EU takes cybersecurity seriously. And with cause. Cyber crime is rife, ransomware big business, and state actors increasingly resort to cyber interference to promote their interests and weaken adversaries.
Italian, French, and German regulators are stepping up fines on Big Tech for antitrust and privacy violations before Europe’s upcoming Digital Markets Act risks diluting their authority.
The EU is on the brink of adopting new rules that will transform the dynamics of the digital economy and so significantly improve consumers’ experience. But it is crucially important that EU lawmakers resist last-ditch attempts by Big Tech companies to derail or neutralise these rules before they reach the statute book, writes Ursula Pachl.
The European press sector has serious concerns about the ongoing Digital Services Act negotiations in Parliament and Council, which risk undermining Europe’s free and independent press. Victoria Svanberg is the acting vice-chair and acting chairman of NWT Gruppen AB and president …
The European Conservatives and Reformists Party has put together the opportunity for young people to learn about the digital world for a reasonable participation fee.
To limit the power of internet platforms, the EU is working on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Commission’s draft for the DMA looks promising and shows credible ambition to address digital gatekeepers like Google or Facebook and tackle monopoly power in Europe.
France’s tech policy will prove detrimental in determining overall future EU tech policy.
Unprecedented internet outages, public outrage, pending lawsuits, upcoming legislation, growing competition, and privacy quarrels: Facebook is facing its darkest hour.
The stunning events in Washington on January 6th not only showed the fragility of modern democracies but also demonstrated the untamed power of Big Tech, writes Marc Sundermann, Paolo Cesarini and Christophe Leclercq.
From scam ads on Google and Facebook, the purchase of fake reviews on various platforms to chemicals surpassing legal limits in children’s toys sold on Wish, Amazon and eBay – the internet is rife with products, services and content which should never be offered in Europe, writes Ursula Pachl.
Tomorrow, the European Commission will publish its proposal to address excessive power in digital markets. Zeroing in on the digital sector makes little economic sense: new limits to Big Tech’s leverage will not give the European economy the dynamism it needs to foster technological development.
As the Council seems to have (yet again) failed to adopt a general approach for the ePrivacy regulation, one question that bears asking is: would more exceptions for online tracking support online publishers or the advertising industry? Karolina Iwańska argues that here is a way to sustain online publishing and uphold privacy
As app makers, we may not immediately come to mind when discussing the perils of platform regulation. After all, the new competition rules will only directly apply to large companies acting as ‘gatekeepers’. This opinion is the result of a collaboration …
A list of prohibited practices as part of the EU's upcoming efforts to regulate the digital ecosystem could have unintended consequences for the tech industry's ability to develop innovative tools, writes Karan Bhatia.
As the European elections and the change of Commission loom next year, the Commission is in a hurry to get its last proposals out and parliamentarians are keen to complete their scrutiny before the campaign trail beckons, writes Christian Verschueren.
When the so-called “Spitzenkandidaten” or lead candidate method for designating the Commission president was introduced in 2014, it was celebrated as a democratic revolution. Five years later, it is difficult to find anyone seriously questioning the method - but the enthusiasm has somewhat washed away, writes Christopher Glück.
Competition is what makes the world a better place, not intelligent design by God or by bureaucrats. Therefore, protecting competition is one of the key responsibilities of the European Commission. But in the case of Android, it is about to make a huge mistake, writes Žiga Turk.
