Comment by sunshine-o

You need to put yourself in the EU governing people shoes for a minute. Their predecessors, who were from the WW2 and Silent generations, did not care about the free Internet because they relied on the large mainstream media consuming baby boomers. They had a direct line to them. But the boomers are between 60 and 80 and vanishing. The following generations are in panic mode.

So until recently the "free" Internet did not matter politically in the EU. Tech was used to trigger color revolutions abroad where the demographics were younger.

But now the unelected EU commission inherited that Internet things and are on the wrong side of it. Worst almost everybody in the EU speaks English and listen to Joe Rogan & co. And while the US Gov might be able to control the Joe Rogan type the EU does not.

So their only move is to crack down on the Internet and limit it with a Chinese firewall type system. But they obviously do not have the ability to do so without the capabilities of an US tech giant (remember their own systems are on Office 365, every phone is Android or Apple). And this would also be in the interest of the US because it would give them a solid control over the EU.

Remember the first goal of a system is to survive and I do not see another realistic path.