Alex Agius Saliba To Meet Silicon Valley Tech Giants Ahead Of EU Regulations
Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba will meet with US tech giants in Silicon Valley ahead of the EU’s major plans to regulate digital markets and services.
Agius Saliba, who will be the S&D representative on the EP delegation for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee, will visit several companies, including Meta, Google, Apple and others) between 23rd and 27th May.
The delegation will look into the digital market developments in the United States and the EU, particularly opportunities and challenges in relation to the development and further use of e-commerce, artificial intelligence, consumer protection, online platforms and the sharing economy.
“The IMCO delegation to the Silicon Valley comes at a time of greater U.S. interest in anti-trust enforcement and more pressure over digital regulation. We have recently agreed on the new digital rules aimed at taking back digital control in Europe, preserving democracy, and asserting clear and transparent rules to maximize the benefits and mitigate the damage that is becoming increasingly apparent,” Agius Saliba said.
The news comes a day after Agius Saliba criticised Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter, describing it as “shocking” and warning the business magnate that he will still have to abide by new EU rules regulating social media platforms.
The Digital Service Act (DSA), an upcoming piece of legislation to regulate social media platforms, will impose obligations to remove illegal content more quickly, explain their algorithms more transparently, and clamp down on disinformation.
Parallel to the DSA, the EU is also discussing the Digital Markets Act (DMA), an antitrust piece of legislation aimed at preventing tech giants from abusing their dominant market position. Agius Saliba was also lead rapporteur on the proposasl.
Both will be discussed with operators.
Twitter is not among the companies the delagation will visit. The delegation will visit the headquarters of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google, Airbnb, eBay, PayPal, HP, Cloudflare, and Electronic Frontier Foundation.
This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. This article reflects only the author’s view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
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