The move by major technology companies to suspend Donald Trump’s access to their platforms, following the unrest at the US Capitol building last week, has resonated in Europe, reinforcing the view that existing legal frameworks are insufficient to address the considerable influence of tech corporations and the content they distribute and profit from.

In an article published by Politico, Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s internal market commissioner, characterized the events surrounding the disruption of the US political landscape as a watershed moment for social media – comparable to the events of 9/11 – and a stark awakening to the tangible consequences of unchecked online hostility and misinformation.

Following these actions, Trump has been removed from numerous online platforms, and the conservative social media application Parler has been removed from both the App Store and Google Play due to its failure to adequately moderate threats of violence, particularly after a surge of users migrated to the app following restrictions imposed by Facebook and Twitter.

As of this writing, Parler is also facing potential termination of service from its hosting provider, AWS, and Stripe has reportedly suspended Trump’s access to its payment processing tools. (However, when asked in November regarding potential violations of its terms of service related to Trump’s use of its payment tools for his ‘election defense fund,’ Stripe did not respond to inquiries from TechCrunch…)

“The recent events at the Capitol have definitively demonstrated that online platforms have become integral components of our societies and democracies. What transpires online does not remain isolated to the digital realm; it has – and often intensifies – repercussions in the physical world,” Breton states.

“The insurrection witnessed last week represents the culmination of years of escalating hate speech, incitement to violence, the spread of disinformation, and destabilizing tactics that were permitted to proliferate without restraint across prominent social networks. The disturbances in Washington serve as evidence that an expansive and largely unregulated digital environment – akin to the Wild West – exerts a significant impact on the core principles of our modern democracies.”

In December, the European Commission proposed substantial revisions to the regulations governing digital services and major platforms, introducing the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act. The aim is to create a more equitable regulatory landscape by ensuring that content and activities considered unlawful offline are similarly addressed online.

The Commission’s proposal also intends to tackle the market dominance of tech giants through increased oversight and additional regulations for the largest platforms, which pose the greatest potential for societal harm.

Consequently, Breton has leveraged the tumultuous scenes in Washington to advocate for this pre-existing tech policy plan, targeting European governments and members of the European Parliament to garner support for the legislation and modernize the region’s digital regulations.

“The fact that a chief executive officer can unilaterally suspend a head of state’s communication channel without any oversight is concerning. This underscores not only the power of these platforms but also reveals fundamental shortcomings in the organization of our society within the digital sphere,” he cautions.

“The events of the past few days have made it abundantly clear that we cannot passively rely on the goodwill or discretionary interpretation of the law by these platforms. We must establish clear rules, define rights and obligations, and implement safeguards. Restoring trust in the digital space is essential for the survival of our democracies in the 21st century.”

The DSA will require social media platforms to improve their content moderation practices and mitigate the risk of arbitrary decision-making by imposing “clear obligations and responsibilities to comply with the law, granting public authorities greater enforcement powers, and ensuring the protection of all users’ fundamental rights,” Breton explains.

The commissioner also directly addresses US legislators, urging collaboration between Europe and the US in the realm of Internet regulation and initiating discussions to establish “globally consistent principles,” with the DSA serving as a potential foundation for these conversations. He is also utilizing the recent events to advance a geopolitical agenda for EU tech policy.

Last month, the Commission expressed a desire to collaborate with the incoming Biden administration on a unified approach to tech governance, hoping for cooperation in shaping global standards for technologies like AI and promoting greater accountability among large tech companies. Recent events in Washington appear to support this initiative, although the Biden administration’s approach to regulating big tech remains to be seen.

“The DSA, meticulously crafted to address all of the aforementioned considerations within the context of our continent, can facilitate the development of a new global framework for online platforms – one that serves the collective interests of our societies. By establishing a standard and clarifying the rules, it has the potential to become a pivotal democratic reform benefiting future generations,” Breton concludes.

The decision by Twitter to remove Trump from its platform also drew the attention of UK minister Matt Hancock, formerly the secretary of state for the digital brief (now the health secretary). In an interview with the BBC this weekend, he suggested that this unilateral action “raises questions” regarding the regulation of big tech and would likely have “consequences”.