Daniel Michaels

The Trump administration is ramping up attacks on Europe’s digital rules, opening a new front in Washington’s pressure campaign on longtime allies that combines assertions of defending free speech with efforts to protect commercial interests. Much of the initiative is led by the State Department, which sent a request to its offices around Europe seeking “examples of government efforts to limit freedom of speech.” The push centers on European Union legislation that aims to establish standards for how tech giants should police online content.

The European Commission aims to use its new authority to review Facebook’s proposed takeover of Kustomer, a startup specializing in customer-service platforms and chatbots.

Wireless speaker company Sonos, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter  have updated their global privacy rules in anticipation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR is the latest sign of the EU’s growing power in global regulation. With increasing frequency, EU rules targeting industries within the bloc—from consumer products to financial services—have set international benchmarks. Some are taken piecemeal, as with GDPR, from which non-EU companies are cherry-picking elements. Other rules have become de facto world-wide references.