Sam Schechner

Cable magnate John Malone says 21st Century Fox has long been eyeing a takeover bid for Time Warner and isn't likely to face competing bidders, pouring cold water on speculation that tech companies could emerge as rival suitors for the TV and movie company.

"It's such a large magnitude transaction," Malone said, adding that Fox's ability to pay with nonvoting stock and to access cheap debt means "that it would be very difficult to put together a competitive bid."

European Union antitrust officials have started questioning rival firms about Facebook's proposed $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp, ahead of a formal review that could be a test case for how to apply EU competition law to the new world of social media.

Officials at the European Commission, the EU's central competition authority, have in recent weeks sent detailed questionnaires to several technology and online-messaging companies, asking about the merger's effect on competition in their markets, according to people familiar with the matter.

The questionnaires also drill down into a relatively new area for merger reviews: how the companies control and use personal data when they offer services, some of the people said.

The commission's questioning of rivals comes before the EU opens a formal merger review that will provide one of the first in-depth looks at the app economy and social media through the lens of competition law, antitrust lawyers and technology executives say.

France plans to redouble its push to tighten regulation of big US tech companies at the national and European level, part of Europe's backlash against the growing influence -- and profit -- of a handful of large Internet firms.

The French government will begin public consultations on a new "digital" law for France, and start working on a common strategy with Germany to develop new digital regulations in Europe for companies such as Google and Facebook said Axelle Lemaire, France's junior minister for digital affairs.

"The risk is that the Internet of tomorrow will be paralyzed by monopolies," Lemaire said. "They have the power of life or death over a large number of players in the digital ecosystem."

The country hopes to build on broader pressure facing American Web companies in Europe. A coalition of French and German politicians and companies have been pressuring the European Union to scrap its tentative antitrust agreement with Google to settle concerns that the company abuses its dominant Internet-search engine. At the same time, European officials are digging into tax structures that companies -- often tech firms -- use to reduce the amount of tax they pay on revenue generated in Europe.

Google's proposed settlement with European Union antitrust cops is under increasing threat of being revised or scrapped, amid calls to more tightly regulate the Web giant in the run up to European Parliament elections.

Politicians from France and Germany have in recent days ramped up rhetoric against the settlement with Google, which aims to resolve accusations that the company abuses its dominance in online search to promote its own businesses. Germany's economy minister said the deal should be improved. His French counterpart said that the European Commission -- the bloc's executive arm -- should reject it as it stands.

Behind closed doors, commission officials have suggested to opponents that some elements of the deal -- in which Google has pledged to dedicate space for competitors atop its search results --could be revisited, according to people involved in the discussions. Google officials, for their part, have been holding similar meetings to press their case that their settlement is fair, and tougher than regulators might get by pressing formal antitrust charges, people familiar with those meetings said.

"The offers by Google aren't worthless, but they're not nearly enough," said EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, among the 28 commissioners who must approve a settlement before it becomes binding. "We don't want to become a digital colony of global Internet giants," said French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg said at an event to oppose the antitrust deal. "It is necessary, indeed urgent, to put in place a framework that guarantees a level playing field" for European companies.

Google has declined Turkish government requests to remove YouTube videos alleging government corruption, people familiar with the matter said, the latest sign of resistance to a crackdown against social media led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish authorities have asked Google to block the videos from YouTube's Turkish website, the people familiar with the matter said. But amid a national scandal over corruption allegations, Google refused to comply because it believes the requests to be legally invalid, the people added.

Google's refusal to remove videos raises the specter that Turkey could move to block access to YouTube within the country, after blocking the microblogging service Twitter. Both sites have been central conduits for allegations of corruption against Erdogan's government and faced public threats of a blackout by Erdogan. Some people within Google had feared a YouTube blackout could be imminent, after the Twitter takedown, the people familiar with the matter said. "We feel an immediate threat," one of the people said.