
Analysis
Big tech: From Trump's best friend to censorship machine?
Trump's social-media ban and the power of platforms has come under public scrutiny in Europe. So what went wrong? And what's the best way forward?
Thursday
28th Jan 2021
Trump's social-media ban and the power of platforms has come under public scrutiny in Europe. So what went wrong? And what's the best way forward?
EU top negotiator on vaccines contracts defended the EU's joint approach on vaccinations - amid a wave of critics who blame the European Commission for not buying enough doses and calls for increased transparency.
Europe should share corona-vaccines with former Soviet countries on its eastern flank, for health and "strategic" reasons, according to 13 EU foreign ministers.
A new report warns that the use of artificial intelligence and autonomous arms are fuelling military escalation for future conflicts and threaten peace in Europe and worldwide.
The recent attack on the US Capitol reveals the toxicities of digital media platforms, but the European Commission's proposed competition laws won't fix it.
Let's expand the EU with a Health Union where cutting edge research and world-class applications go hand in hand. For this, it is worth being European, believing in Europe, working on Europe, writes European People's Party leader Manfred Weber MEP.
The European Medicines Agency has authorised the use of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US company Moderna - while the EU is involved in a blame-game over a sluggish vaccine rollout across member states.
EU leaders regularly held video-conferences to coordinate the pandemic reaction last year, but countries and EU institutions recently began a blame-game over the sluggish roll-out of vaccines.
I understand that the German-Turkish community - often subjected to condescension in Germany - celebrated the story. Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türecki represent scientific excellence and business success at the highest level.
The EU Commission says the perceived slow roll-out of vaccines is due to production capacity, not the number of doses the EU has secured.
The Danish government has committed to reducing Denmark's CO2 emissions by 70 percent by 2030. These are not figures made up for the occasion. They are the targets that scientists believe are the bare necessity.
The EU is still several months away from having enough vaccines to inoculate its 450 million people, with Pfizer and BioNTech, its principle suppliers, aiming for September for delivery targets.
Most EU member states began rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 on Sunday, as a more contagious variant from the UK begins to spread on the continent.
Member states can start vaccination programmes in the next few days, after EU approved the use of Pfizer and BioTech's Covid-19 drug.
The new, more contagious strain of Covid-19 is already in the EU, with Sweden closing its border to Denmark, on top of a UK cordon sanitaire.
German car maker Volkswagen deliberately cheated EU emissions tests by installing "defeat devices", the EU top court has ruled, in a blow to industry in the 'Dieselgate' affair.
The European Commission proposed a reform of the bloc's cybersecurity rules . "The time of innocence is over. We know that we are a prime target," warned commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas.
The European Commission unveiled on Tuesday a package of proposals that set out legal obligations for digital platforms aimed at tackling illegal content and unfair practices in today's digital environment.
A partial agreement has been reached to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online, pushing companies like Facebook or YouTube to remove or disable access to this material within one hour.
Hackers, most likely from a foreign state, have targeted the EU Commission with bogus emails to steal secrets on Covid-19 vaccines, according to US tech firm IBM.
In the coming days the European Commission seems poised to green-light the acquisition of Fitbit by Google. The deal is a major threat to human rights and must be stopped in its tracks.
Beyond privacy, the EU should equalise political party access to online ads and improve the oversight of digital campaigning. It can borrow from how governments have curbed big money in politics.
The EU recently signed a huge contract for a US anti-corona drug which, the WHO says, might not work, but there's little transparency on how the deal was made.
Brussels presented new rules on data governance, including a provision for 'data altruism', in a bid to tap the potential of mass-volume information storage - and compete with the US, China and Asia.
A panel at the World Health Organisation said the antiviral drug remdesivir was 'ineffective' in treating Covid-19. But tens of thousands of doses have already been distributed throughout the EU and a €1bn contract signed with Gilead.
EU leaders also agreed on Thursday on the need to clearly communicate the importance of vaccines amid rising scepticism, and avoid prematurely ending confinement measures.
What will the new Joe Biden administration bring to the realm of digital policy, and how will it affect the relationship with the EU?
Should Big Tech and gig platforms push for a policy similar to Proposition 22 in Europe, workers' rights could quickly become a ceiling rather than a floor.
After an experimental Covid-19 vaccine developed by the American giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was found to be more than 90 percent effective, the EU announced that it will sign a contract for up to 300 million doses.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube and TikTok were fined by Turkish authoirties for failing to appoint a representative able to address complaints, as required by a new law.
Despite the coronavirus crisis, the European Commission wants member states to attract more than €20bn of investment in artificial intelligence (AI) annually over the next decade to make Europe a leader of so-called 'trustworthy artificial intelligence'.
The EU Commission wants to reduce cancer rates in Europe. So it's imperative this week's chemicals strategy properly regulates substances that can cause cancer - despite the efforts of the chemicals lobby, which has spent years successfully preventing tough action.
A crossparty group of British MPs urged the government to consider removing Huawei from the country's 5G networks as soon as 2025 saying there is "clear evidence of collusion" between Huawei and the Chinese state.