Amid rising EU-US tensions, a new report has accused Big Tech of courting far-right MEPs to weaken the EU’s regulatory power on AI and data.
Major US technology companies have tapped into the European far-right to help pressure the European Commission into stripping back regulations for its sector, according to a new report released on Wednesday.
The European Commission’s deregulatory push in the Digital Omnibus – which delayed the AI Act and weakened GDPR protections – was also revealed to closely align with Big Tech’s lobbying demands, while seriously damaging EU citizens’ digital rights.
Big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta increased their meetings with far-right groups in the European Parliament ahead of the Commission’s push last year, revealed a new analysis by non-profit organisations Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl.
“This is largely because the far-right has expressed support for the Commission’s deregulation plans,” Bram Vranken, CEO’s researcher and campaigner, told The Brussels Times.
Continue Reading here - https://www.brusselstimes.com/1916422/us-tech-giants-allying-with-european-far-right-to-strip-back-eu-rules
Don’t get fooled. The latest round of rollbacks was initiated and carried by the European People’s Party which supposedly are centrists.
The EPP are generally right wing if you look at the parties that make it up
Hence “supposedly”
Fragasaurio’s party has always been a right-wing coalition and later party.
I didn’t even know them. I checked the wikipedia page, the current president is from the CSU, a german party - so nah, they are definitely not centrists. The CSU is everything but centrist lmao.