How did content moderation become part of the trade war?

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino.

Earlier this week on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called out countries trying to regulate

U.S. tech companies, warning they could face new tariffs. The White House has struck a provisional

trade deal with the European Union, but tensions remain over the block's sweeping tech laws, like the Digital Services

Act. It requires platforms to moderate illegal content and disinformation.

Cristiano Lima Strong has been writing about the administration's pressure campaign around

this law. He's an associate editor at Tech Policy Press.

So the disinformation piece, I think,

is particularly something that's come under fire from the Trump administration, from

Republicans in Congress, from others. They've claimed that it's basically forcing tech

platforms to crack down on political speech more.

Now, I think in reality, like, we're in the very early stages of enforcement of these laws.

There have not been fines issued under the Digital Services Act yet.

There's investigations ongoing.

There's expected fines against, you know, Elon Musk's X that are potentially

coming down the pipeline. But we are still seeing how it's going to play out in terms of enforcement.

But, I mean, the bulk of what the Digital Services Act does is it deals with illegal content, is it deals with, you know,

things like terrorist content, things like child abuse material, things that sort of clearly

violate platforms policies, but Republicans have cast it as something far more nefarious and broader than that.

Right. So the law doesn't stipulate what constitutes disinformation. It does empower, you know,

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