The EU and UK will have to “stick together” in the face of the threat of misinformation from US tech firms such as X and Facebook, EU sources have said.
It follows a sustained attack by Elon Musk on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, including calls for him to be replaced, as well as an intervention in support of the far-right AfD party in Germany.
Security fears have also been raised with the loosening of moderation and fact-checking on Facebook and X likely to be exploited by hostile countries such as Russia and Iran.
Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this month that fact-checkers would be scrapped on the platform and that he would work with incoming US president Donald Trump to “push back” against greater regulation of social media – a direct challenge to UK and EU legislation.
As the UK and EU try to mend relations with Starmer’s much vaunted post-Brexit “reset”, officials hope the Prime Minister and his European counterparts will be able to work together and combat the spread of disinformation.
But doing so could present a difficult diplomatic problem for Starmer who is working to create good relations with the incoming Trump adminstration and avoid any trade tariffs promised by Trump which could harm the UK economy.
Sources fear that both the UK and EU could face tariffs unless they back down on plans for greater regulation of social media.
But insiders in London and Brussels say that Musk – and other tech billionaires lining up to support the incoming president – pose a unique threat, both in Britain and the EU.
Security officials fear that the lowered bar for misleading content is likely to be exploited by British adversaries, such as Russia, China and Iran. The spread of such false information shared online has been blamed for riots in the UK following the death of three girls in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Soutport in July and interfering in European election results in Romania and Moldova.
Musk, the world’s richest man who will serve in Trump’s next administration, has launched multiple attacks on Starmer over child grooming and his role as Britain’s chief prosecutor before he became PM, citing false claims that he covered up the Rochdale grooming scandal.
Musk has also expressed support for Tommy Robinson and suggested that America should “liberate” Britain.
His relentless campaign against Starmer has been noticed by EU officials, who fear Musk might turn similar levels of attention to European countries or the EU itself.
“There has been quite a lot of solidarity with the UK over what Musk is trying to do there,” said one EU parliament source. “I don’t think there is a sense the UK will be bullied, but rather a sense that UK and EU have to stick together.”
An official in the EU Commission told The i Paper that Brussels has been watching Musk’s attacks on Starmer with interest, having noted his interest in Germany’s far-right Alternative fur Deutschland. Germany will hold federal elections later this year.
“What’s happened to Starmer looks like harassment, trying to remove someone in office,” they said, arguing that it is only a matter of time before Musk launches a similar campaign against someone on the continent.
Brussels sees the threat posed by Musk and the content on X as part of a much wider challenge the EU will face from the big American tech companies, whose leaders appear to be cosying up to Trump ahead of his return to the White House.
“It’s obvious to anyone who uses X that the platform has been spammed with more far-right content in the past couple of years,” said the Commission official. “What we are most concerned about is not just how the platform promotes this content, but also downgrades other voices.”
Essentially, they fear that users on X will increasingly only see opinions that chimes with Musk, much of which will be based on false information. This, they say, could in practice mean more hate speech and disinformation amplifying whatever Musk is fixated on at any given moment – with the snowball effect that his interest in Starmer serves as a warning.
Facebook monitoring
It’s not just X and Musk that pose a problem for Britain and the EU. Last week, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced that his platforms – including Facebook and Instagram – would no longer fact check content and would simplify their moderation policy on topics like race, gender and other contentious subjects. Zuckerberg took a direct swipe at the EU, saying: “Europe has an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalising censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative.”
This, officials worry, could be just the first step in a wider anti-EU drive over the next four years, ultimately pushing towards lighter regulation in Europe for American companies.
“It could become a shared fight between the UK and EU and one we need to win, because there is a lot at stake,” said the Commission official.
The immediate risk, as officials see it, is that social media becomes a Wild West where anyone can publish anything and unverified or illegal content is pushed on European citizens.
This could mean, for example, Russian troll farms exploiting looser moderation and deliberately spreading disinformation that leads to divisions in society, affecting public order and influencing election results. There has been an explosion of this kind of disinformation since the start of the war in Ukraine, often aimed against Britain.
There are legal instruments that can be used against tech firms. The EU’s Digital Services Act, for example, allows the EU to take action against platforms allowing the spread of disinformation or illegal content, fining them or potentially shutting down their websites. Meanwhile, The i Paper reported last week that Starmer’s Government is already looking to beef up its rules on disinformation and online safety.
But having rules in place and actually using them are two different things, especially if the Trump administration does end up working hand-in-glove with America’s big tech companies.
There is also a problem for the Government which has expended a lot of diplomatic effort into ensuring good relations with Trump. A key hope is for better trade relations with the US, and exemption from trade tariffs Trump has threatened to impose.
Taking action could risk political backlash from Washington, which might mean anything from export controls on vital components to a bonfire of regulations that gives American companies a significant advantage over Europeans.
“It might be that when we try enacting laws against US social media companies, this will set off a round of punitive actions by the US government protecting its companies,” says a senior EU official.
The fear of such retaliation could in turn lead to political paralysis, leaving London and Brussels too timid to take legal action against American companies.
This kind of paralysis could have an impact beyond disinformation and threats to democracy.
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Industry insiders fear that Trump’s agenda could ultimately extend to regulation. If, for example, Trump dramatically breaks from international standards around AI safety or how companies safeguard against illegal activity, the EU and Britain might have to decide whether to stick to their own standards currently in place, or try and compete with America.
“Trump wants to win the tech race and therefore give opportunities to US tech companies to win, while the EU is stuck under a mountain of regulation,” said one lobbyist.
The G7 has agreed to 11 principles on the development of AI, but how they fair in a Trump 2.0 world remains to be seen. As a former Trump official told the New York Times recently, Europe “has no idea what is coming its way”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said: “We are looking closely at Meta’s announcement impacting its US platform. Regardless of any changes in Meta’s policy, from March the UK’s Online Safety Act will oblige social media platforms to remove illegal content – including illegal disinformation – and content harmful to children.
“We remain in regular contact with all major platforms about the action being taken to prepare for these laws, and urge them to counter the spread of misinformation and disinformation hosted on their sites. But our message is clear – there is no need to wait, they should take action now to protect their users.”
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