Europe has passed comprehensive internet privacy laws, adopted far-reaching restrictions to curtail tech firms’ dominance, and achieved an agreement on new legislation to protect its citizens from dangerous online material in the previous few years. For those keeping track, Europe has three points. 0 for the United States.
The United States may have given birth to the iPhone and the world’s most popular search engine and social network, but it also has the potential to usher the globe into the so-called metaverse. However, more than 3,000 miles away from Washington, European leaders representing 27 countries and 24 languages have managed to agree on fundamental internet protections for their 450 million citizens.
In the United States, Congress has failed to adopt a single comprehensive rule to safeguard internet users and limit the dominance of the country’s computer behemoths.
It isn’t through want of effort. Hundreds of federal privacy legislation have been drafted and then discarded without bipartisan support during the last 25 years. Every time a bank or shop is hacked, politicians draught data breaches and security measures, but they inevitably die on the vine. A rush of speech bills has become mired in the quagmire of party dissent over freedom of expression. Antitrust legislation aimed at limiting the influence of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, has stalled because of significant lobbying resistance.
Apple, on the other hand, expressed worry that “certain DMA requirements may introduce needless privacy and security concerns for our consumers.” “While we support many of the DMA’s aims around consumer choice and interoperability, we’re concerned that some of these regulations may limit innovation and choice accessible to Europeans,” Google stated.
