Technology Companies, Mostly Based in the U.S., Rush to Comply With European Regulations ⇥ reuters.com

Martin Coulter, Reuters:

From Friday, a host of internet giants – including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms, Apple’s online App Store, and a handful of Google services – will face new obligations in the EU, including preventing harmful content from spreading, banning or limiting certain user-targeting practices, and sharing some internal data with regulators and associated researchers.

The EU is seen as the global leader in tech regulation, with more wide-ranging pieces of legislation – such as the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act – on the way. The bloc’s success in implementing such laws will influence the introduction of similar rules around the world.

Kim Mackrael and Sam Schechner, Wall Street Journal:

While the new laws apply only in Europe, their effect will ripple globally. Brussels’ regulations are often templates for others, which typically leads tech platforms to implement some changes worldwide. And the breadth of the rules is feeding a shift toward a compliance culture within some companies that originated in the techno-libertarian hothouse of Silicon Valley.

[…]

“This is a Glass-Steagall moment for big tech,” said Brian Wieser, a tech analyst and former investment banker, referring to the Depression-era law that reined in banks. “They’re going from effectively no regulation to heavy regulation.”

There is understandable anxiety about these robust and thorough regulations; I have also expressed concerns. However, I am just as excited by the possibilities of requiring some of the most valuable corporations on the planet to actually compete with smaller players on more even terms. The next several years could be some of the industry’s most exciting and dynamic — or, to use a term Silicon Valley will understand, some of the most disruptive.