Report from EuroNews
In Brief – French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to fully enforce the Digital Services Act (DSA) to counter foreign election interference ahead of major votes in 11 EU countries in 2026 and France, Italy and Poland in 2027. Macron alleges Russian interference with France’s recent municipal elections. He urged the Commission to fully use its existing authority under the DSA. Macron specifically called for limiting algorithm-driven virality of content, labeling AI-generated material, removing fake accounts, and ensuring transparency in political advertising. His appeal follows election-related DSA investigations into Meta and TikTok, including following the 2024 Romanian presidential campaign that was eventually annulled and rerun amid charges that online activity, primarily on TikTok and allegedly coordinated from Russia, resulted an unexpected win by a relatively unknown anti-EU populist.
Context – The DSA regulates how digital platforms address “any actual or foreseeable negative effects on civic discourse and electoral processes” and its regulators have been engaging on election-related processes for several years, including roundtables and platform stress-tests before the 2024 EU Parliament elections and the 2025 German election. Of all the digital policy issues animating the Trump Administration, pushing back against what they believe is anti-populist online censorship is the only one with backing across the spectrum of US conservatives, including those who generally oppose Big Tech and AI. Many leading US populist conservatives have built alliances in Europe. They believe they have temporarily beaten back anti-conservative policies on the big social media platforms in the US but believe a progressive ecosystem of government agencies, think tanks, advocacy groups and researchers continues to police politically relevant online speech in Europe. While TikTok agreed to make major changes in 2025 after the 2024 Romania elections, the open investigations of X policies and algorithms remains a major potential bilateral tripwire.