Trump's comments Monday appeared aimed at European countries and others which have created laws regulating the online world.
"The UK's Digital Services Tax is a fair and proportionate approach to taxing business activities undertaken in the UK, and it remains the UK's intention to repeal it once an international solution is in place," a government spokesperson told AFP.
"We will continue to make sure that businesses pay their fair share of tax, including businesses in the digital sector," they added in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, the European Commission asserted the EU's "sovereign right" to regulate the activities of tech giants within the bloc and rejected claims by Trump that its rules unfairly harm US firms.
The UK digital tax, levied on the likes of Apple and Facebook owner Meta, is currently brings in about GBP 800 million ($1 billion) annually to the British government, headed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
EU claims 'sovereign right' to regulate tech after Trump threat
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Aug 26, 2025 -
Brussels has adopted a powerful legal arsenal aimed at reining in tech giants, particularly through the Digital Markets Act (DMA) covering competition and Digital Services Act (DSA) on content moderation.
Without explicitly naming the EU, Trump threatened on Monday to impose fresh tariffs on countries with regulations that sought to "harm" American technology, just days after both sides released details of a hard-fought transatlantic trade deal.
"It is the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate economic activities on our territory," European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters in response.
The EU has already slapped heavy fines on US behemoths including Meta and Apple under its new digital rules, which have faced months of pushback from Trump's administration.
EU tech spokesman Thomas Regnier said the bloc could "firmly rebut" the idea pushed by Trump that its rules targeted US companies.
"The DSA does not look at the colour of a company, at the jurisdiction of a company," Regnier said -- noting that the last three enforcement decisions under the law had been against China's AliExpress and TikTok, and Chinese-founded Temu.
Aimed at protecting consumers from disinformation and hate speech as well as counterfeit or dangerous goods, the DSA obliges platforms to swiftly remove illegal content or make it inaccessible.
Among its provisions, the law instructs platforms to suspend users who frequently share illegal content such as hate speech -- something framed as "censorship" by detractors from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the US State Department.
"The claims that the DSA is a censorship tool are completely wrong and completely unfounded," Regnier said.
"We're not asking platforms to remove content. We're asking them to enforce their own terms and conditions."
- 'Speculative' -
Trump's latest threat comes after the United States and the EU finally released details of the trade deal struck between the US leader and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July to end a months-long transatlantic standoff.
A joint statement issued last Thursday confirmed that the deal imposes a 15-percent US levy on most EU exports, including cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, but negotiations are not over and some moving parts remain.
The bloc's trade chief Maros Sefcovic insisted last week that Brussels successfully kept digital issues "out of the trade negotiations" with Washington -- and that the bloc's "regulatory autonomy" was not up for debate.
The commission's Pinho stood by those comments, saying Trump's latest threat would not derail work on implementing the agreement.
"We have a clear framework on which we are working," she said, adding: "any other measures which fall out of the scope of this framework agreement at this stage are merely speculative."
The European laws curbing big tech... and irking Trump
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Aug 26, 2025 -
Brussels has adopted a powerful legal arsenal aimed at reining in tech giants -- namely through its Digital Markets Act (DMA) covering competition and the Digital Services Act (DSA) on content moderation.
The EU has already slapped heavy fines on US behemoths including Meta and Apple under the new rules, which have faced strong pushback from Trump's administration.
The bloc's trade chief Maros Sefcovic insisted last week that Brussels successfully "kept these issues out of the trade negotiations" with Washington -- and that the bloc's "regulatory autonomy" was not up for debate.
But while he did not explicitly name the EU, the US leader cast new doubt on the status quo Monday by threatening fresh tariffs on countries with regulations that sought to "harm" American technology.
Here is a look at the EU rules drawing Trump's ire:
- Digital Services Act -
Rolled out in stages since 2023, the mammoth Digital Services Act forces online firms to aggressively police content in the 27 countries of the European Union -- or face major fines.
Aimed at protecting consumers from disinformation and hate speech as well as counterfeit or dangerous goods, it obliges platforms to swiftly remove illegal content or make it inaccessible.
Companies must inform authorities when they suspect a criminal offence that threatens people's lives or safety.
And the law instructs platforms to suspend users who frequently share illegal content such as hate speech -- a provision framed as "censorship" by detractors across the Atlantic.
Tougher rules apply to a designated list of "very large" platforms that include US giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Microsoft and Snapchat.
These giants must assess dangers linked to their services regarding illegal content and privacy, set up internal risk mitigation systems, and give regulators access to their data to verify compliance.
Violators can face fines or up to six percent of global turnover, and for repeated non-compliance, the EU has the power to ban offending platforms from Europe.
- Digital Markets Act -
Since March 2024, the world's biggest digital companies have faced strict EU rules intended to limit abuses linked to market dominance, favour the emergence of start-ups in Europe and improve options for consumers.
Brussels has so far named seven so-called gatekeepers covered by the Digital Markets Act: Google's Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Microsoft and travel giant Booking.
In a bid to limit the ability of online giants to snuff out potential rivals, the rules require all buyouts to be notified to the European Commission, the EU's competition regulator.
Gatekeepers can be fined for locking in customers to use pre-installed services, such as a web browser, mapping or weather information.
The DMA has forced Google to overhaul its search display to avoid favouring its own services -- such as Google flights or shopping.
It requires that users be able to choose what app stores to use -- without going via the dominant two players, Apple's App Store and Google Play.
And it has forced Apple to allow developers to offer alternative payment options directly to consumers -- outside of the App Store.
The DMA has also imposed interoperability between messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger and competitors who request it.
And it imposes new obligations on the world's biggest online advertisers -- namely Google's search engine and Meta's Facebook and Instagram -- by forcing them to reveal much more to advertisers and publishers on how their ads work.
Failure to comply with the DMA can carry fines in the billions of dollars, reaching 20 percent of global turnover for repeat offenders.
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