Brussels and Washington are once again at odds over Europe’s sweeping social-media restrictions, contained within the 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA). In a letter sent earlier this month, the EU’s vice-president for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, rejected claims made by Donald Trump’s team that the DSA is a tool for censorship. She insisted that the law ‘does not regulate speech’ and that the EU remains ‘deeply committed to protecting and promoting free speech’.

The letter was predominantly in response to US Republican congressman Jim Jordan, who chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee. Jordan, a long-time critic of the DSA, outlined his concerns to Virkkunen in January, when he warned that the law’s impact on free expression could extend beyond Europe’s borders. Similar attacks have been made by US vice-president JD Vance and X owner Elon Musk.

According to Jordan, the DSA could ‘limit or restrict Americans’ constitutionally protected speech in the United States’. He also argued that the law, which compels platforms to mitigate ‘systemic risks’ linked to ‘misleading or deceptive’ speech, will likely incentivise companies to remove even lawful content.