Latest news with #Virkkunen
France 24
4 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
'There's a lot of misunderstanding' on freedom of speech: EU tech sovereignty commissioner
"Freedom of speech is one of our fundamental values in the European Union," Virkkunen remarks. "But it's not as if freedom of speech is above all other rights. Other people have rights also. So we have to be balanced. So if there is, for example, illegal hate speech, it has to be taken down. It's also very important to explain this approach, because there's a lot of misunderstanding." Pushing back on Trump's suggestions that the EU is treating US tech "unfairly", Virkkunen explains: "We have fresh statistics from the last eight months on why online platforms have been removing content, because under our Digital Services Act, they have to report in the European Union if they are removing content. And in 99 percent of cases they are doing that because the content is against their own terms and conditions. Only in 1 percent of cases was the removal based on trusted flaggers in the European Union." The EU Commission is actively enforcing the Digital Services Act, and has opened new investigations. "We are specifically focusing on the protection of minors," Virkkunen says. "We have now opened investigations against adult platforms to make sure that they are protecting minors and that they have the age verification in place. Online shopping is also something where we are facing challenges." As for enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Virkkunen mentions the fines recently applied to Meta and Apple, over non-compliance. "Meta and Apple have 60 days to comply with our rules and change the design of their services. We are all the time looking at all the companies who are operating in the European markets, to make sure that they are complying with our rules," she states. Virkkunen was recently in the US, where she met researchers and innovators. The commissioner says that she sees "a lot of interest towards the European Union, from students, researchers, industry startups and companies, because when there is so much uncertainty on the global scale, Europe is seen as a very reliable and stable and predictable place. Also, Europe is an ageing continent, and it's very important for us to attract talented people from all over the world." Virkkunen concedes that the EU is "often criticised for being too slow and bureaucratic. We want to make Europe faster and simpler and easier for businesses. We are looking at SMEs. We are implementing the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Act, and it's important that we do that in an innovation-friendly manner. So if there are parts of the AI Act that overlap with other rules, we are looking at simplifying that also." On startups, Virkkunen says: "This week we launched our startup and scale-up strategy, because we see that many companies have problems to scale up in the European Union. Often the challenge is access to finance, but we also have too many barriers between the member states. So we have to create one single market and use the full potential of the single market." Virkkunen insists that the building blocks for growth in research and innovation in the EU are already in place. "We have 30 percent more researchers than the US per capita when it comes to AI," she asserts. "We have a very strong research and scientific community. We have 7,000 startups working to develop AI. But the infrastructure is a challenge in the European Union, in that we don't have enough computing capacity because we don't have these big tech giants. That's why, with our member states, we are investing in supercomputers. We have identified 13 so-called AI factories, and we have now opened a call for interest on so-called gigafactories. So we want to have very powerful supercomputers in the coming years to make sure that our startups can develop AI. We also want to encourage more AI uptake by the public sector and by industry."
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
EU to probe gaps in protection of minors on porn websites
May 27 (UPI) -- The European Commission said Tuesday it will look into major pornography websites in its effort to better protect young people under age 18 from lewd Internet content. The EU's politically independent executive arm will investigate porn platforms Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos over alleged lapses in its protection measures for minors, European Commission officials announced Tuesday. "The online space should be a safe environment for children to learn and connect," said Henna Virkkunen, a Finnish politician and the EC's executive VP of tech sovereignty, security and democracy. It will center on age verification steps to keep minors away from adult content and will further examine how the porn platforms verify and mitigate risks. A European Union official said Thursday during a press briefing that there is concern that current digital systems of self-declaration are not effective, adding that the requested info shows those in charge lack "an effective age verification system in place." In addition, it also terminated its designation of Stripchat as a "very large online platform" after it reported fewer users than the 45 million-user threshold. Meanwhile, there is no time limit to conclude a probe under the European bloc's Digital Services Act which can result in a hefty fine up to 6% of a digital porn distributor's global turnover rate. Canada-based Pornhub is owned by Aylo Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, formerly known as MindGeek after Ethical acquired it in March 2023 only to rebrand months later that August. It arrived as the issue of protection on the Internet for minors has reached the EU's agenda for its 27-member country's and the European Commission. "We are not excluding future expansion of the proceedings" into other issues under Europe's DSA like illegal ads or other content, an EC official told Politico. The Commission said individual European national authorities will work hand-in-hand to oversee compliance on smaller porn websites under the Digital Services Board, with another saying local agencies are empowered to open joint investigations and "really kind of put pressure" on smaller pornography platforms. "Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online," stated Finland's Virkkunen, adding that by working with digital coordinators in member EU states, "we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
EU to probe gaps in protection of minors on porn websites
May 27 (UPI) -- The European Commission said Tuesday it will look into major pornography websites in its effort to better protect young people under age 18 from lewd Internet content. The EU's politically independent executive arm will investigate porn platforms Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos over alleged lapses in its protection measures for minors, European Commission officials announced Tuesday. "The online space should be a safe environment for children to learn and connect," said Henna Virkkunen, a Finnish politician and the EC's executive VP of tech sovereignty, security and democracy. It will center on age verification steps to keep minors away from adult content and will further examine how the porn platforms verify and mitigate risks. A European Union official said Thursday during a press briefing that there is concern that current digital systems of self-declaration are not effective, adding that the requested info shows those in charge lack "an effective age verification system in place." In addition, it also terminated its designation of Stripchat as a "very large online platform" after it reported fewer users than the 45 million-user threshold. Meanwhile, there is no time limit to conclude a probe under the European bloc's Digital Services Act which can result in a hefty fine up to 6% of a digital porn distributor's global turnover rate. Canada-based Pornhub is owned by Aylo Holdings, a subsidiary of private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners, formerly known as MindGeek after Ethical acquired it in March 2023 only to rebrand months later that August. It arrived as the issue of protection on the Internet for minors has reached the EU's agenda for its 27-member country's and the European Commission. "We are not excluding future expansion of the proceedings" into other issues under Europe's DSA like illegal ads or other content, an EC official told Politico. The Commission said individual European national authorities will work hand-in-hand to oversee compliance on smaller porn websites under the Digital Services Board, with another saying local agencies are empowered to open joint investigations and "really kind of put pressure" on smaller pornography platforms. "Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online," stated Finland's Virkkunen, adding that by working with digital coordinators in member EU states, "we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users."
eNCA
16-05-2025
- Business
- eNCA
EU tech chief urges US cooperation as key decisions near
EU digital policy chief Henna Virkkunen on Friday urged closer cooperation between the United States and Europe on tech regulation as Brussels finalizes investigations targeting US giants over violations of the bloc's rules. "Big tech companies know that closer cooperation on regulation would benefit their businesses," Virkkunen told AFP after meeting with top Silicon Valley CEOs, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook. Virkkunen's visit to Silicon Valley and Washington was the first since she took her position late last year and the first since President Donald Trump took office in January, taking a harsh line against European policies that he says punish the United States unfairly. That hard line has been welcomed by some tech CEOs, most notably Meta's Zuckerberg, who has actively lobbied the White House to hit back at Brussels on European tech rules, equating them to tariffs that should be brought to the table in Trump's trade battles with Europe. Virkkunen said Zuckerberg's lobbying Trump was "normal" from big companies that will always do what they can to defend their interests. But "European the same for European companies, Asian companies, and US companies, so they are not trade barriers," she said. On her US tour, Virkkunen was also meeting top US officials, many of whom slam the EU's landmark Digital Services Act as a form of government censorship. The DSA requires companies to adequately police content online or face fines, potentially reaching up to 6 percent of a company's global annual revenue after a lengthy back and forth between Brussels and companies. Virkkunen said Brussels' findings on investigations opened against Elon Musk-owned X, Meta and others would come soon. - Lengthy investigation - Her office has faced criticism in Europe that these probes have moved too slowly, perhaps delayed to avoid making waves with the Trump-led White House. Virkkunen said that these 10 major investigations would be finalized "in the coming weeks and months... because they are starting to be at that stage." Defending the long wait, Virkkunen said the coming decisions were the first under the DSA, "and that's why the legal and technical teams wanted to work very carefully and make sure that we always have a very strong legal basis when we are making decisions." Despite the diplomatic turbulence that is likely to come from the results of the investigations, Virkkunen believes that both the United States and the EU would be better served by working more closely on setting rules governing big tech. "Close cooperation would benefit both of us because for the US and tech companies, the European Union is the biggest external market. Many of them have many more users in the European Union than they have in the US," she added. Virkkunen pointed to Meta, saying that the company had more users in Europe using Instagram, the photo-sharing app, than in the United States. "If we are working together with the US, when we look at regulations and standards, what we are setting is the global scale, it would also be much easier for their companies to operate globally," she said. By Alex Pigman
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EU tech chief urges US cooperation as key decisions near
EU digital policy chief Henna Virkkunen on Friday urged closer cooperation between the United States and Europe on tech regulation as Brussels finalizes investigations targeting US giants over violations of the bloc's rules. "Big tech companies know that closer cooperation on regulation would benefit their businesses," Virkkunen told AFP after meeting with top Silicon Valley CEOs, including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook. Virkkunen's visit to Silicon Valley and Washington was the first since she took her position late last year and the first since President Donald Trump took office in January, taking a harsh line against European policies that he says punish the United States unfairly. That hard line has been welcomed by some tech CEOs, most notably Meta's Zuckerberg, who has actively lobbied the White House to hit back at Brussels on European tech rules, equating them to tariffs that should be brought to the table in Trump's trade battles with Europe. Virkkunen said Zuckerberg's lobbying Trump was "normal" from big companies that will always do what they can to defend their interests. But "European the same for European companies, Asian companies, and US companies, so they are not trade barriers," she said. On her US tour, Virkkunen was also meeting top US officials, many of whom slam the EU's landmark Digital Services Act as a form of government censorship. The DSA requires companies to adequately police content online or face fines, potentially reaching up to 6 percent of a company's global annual revenue after a lengthy back and forth between Brussels and companies. Virkkunen said Brussels' findings on investigations opened against Elon Musk-owned X, Meta and others would come soon. - Lengthy investigation - Her office has faced criticism in Europe that these probes have moved too slowly, perhaps delayed to avoid making waves with the Trump-led White House. Virkkunen said that these 10 major investigations would be finalized "in the coming weeks and months... because they are starting to be at that stage." Defending the long wait, Virkkunen said the coming decisions were the first under the DSA, "and that's why the legal and technical teams wanted to work very carefully and make sure that we always have a very strong legal basis when we are making decisions." Despite the diplomatic turbulence that is likely to come from the results of the investigations, Virkkunen believes that both the United States and the EU would be better served by working more closely on setting rules governing big tech. "Close cooperation would benefit both of us because for the US and tech companies, the European Union is the biggest external market. Many of them have many more users in the European Union than they have in the US," she added. Virkkunen pointed to Meta, saying that the company had more users in Europe using Instagram, the photo-sharing app, than in the United States. "If we are working together with the US, when we look at regulations and standards, what we are setting is the global scale, it would also be much easier for their companies to operate globally," she said. arp/md
