The European Democrats and their Secretary General, the Italian Liberal Sandro Gozi, have accused the United States of “political interference” after reports revealed that the Trump administration ordered US diplomats to lobby against the European Union’s internet regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“Trump and the digital oligarchs want to impose a lawless digital Wild West on Europe, where profits rule, not rights. But we won’t let that happen,” the European Democrats declared in a strongly worded statement on August 7.
“The DSA defends transparency, legality, and citizens’ rights. In Europe, we don’t take orders from Washington — or from Silicon Valley,” they added.
The transatlantic friction over tech sovereignty is now boiling into the diplomatic arena.
Gozi, a Liberal MEP with the Renew Europe group and a prominent voice in the European Democrats party, condemned the US lobbying efforts as a clear case of foreign meddling.
“Trump and Marco Rubio are trying to sabotage the Digital Services Act through diplomatic pressure: This is unacceptable,” Gozi said.
“We take orders from neither Trump nor digital oligarchs. Our laws defend the rights of our citizens, legality, and transparency.”
The comments come in response to a Reuters report published on August 7, which revealed that the US State Department had sent an “action request” cable instructing American diplomats to lobby foreign governments against the DSA.
According to the report, the cable explicitly directed diplomats to “build host government and other stakeholder support to repeal and/or amend the DSA or related EU or national laws restricting expression online,” citing the need to defend “America’s free-speech tradition.”
This effort appears to be part of a broader US campaign to shield Big Tech interests in Europe, with Republican lawmakers warning that tech giants could withdraw from the EU market if regulatory pressure continues.
One US congressman even told Brussels Signal that the issue could be brought into EU-US trade negotiations and that US Big Tech companies could leave the EU over the DSA.
Despite US warnings, the European Commission have been denying it.
Tensions between the EU and the US over digital regulation have escalated after JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, which openly challenged Europe’s regulatory approach to speech and tech governance.
US lawmakers have accused the European Commission of weaponising its “regulatory regime” to “silence American speech” online. https://t.co/8w63AUQrwJ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 4, 2025
