US committee demands Big Tech share private comms with EU officials

The U.S. Congress Judiciary Committee is pushing technology companies to provide access to all communications with European Commission officials that relate to the enforcement of EU digital rules, in letters sent Monday.

The letters cite comments from a senior EU official first reported by POLITICO that communications included messages set to auto-delete.

In letters addressed to 10 companies including Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and X, the chairman of the committee, Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, said that the companies are required “to preserve and produce relevant communications, including these auto-deleting messages, with foreign censors” under subpoenas issued in February.

The EU law governing online content at the biggest tech companies is at the center of a fight between the EU and the U.S. over the limits of platform regulation. The committee has accused the Commission of censorship through its Digital Services Act (DSA) on the basis that it harms the freedom of speech of Europeans and Americans. The Commission has strongly denied the accusations and said it is seeking to minimize risks to users.

Monday’s letters express concern about comments made by the Commission’s lead DSA enforcer, Prabhat Agrawal, in February, to civil society groups, regulators and platforms.

Agarwal said that following pressure from the U.S., his colleagues have started sending messages via Signal, an encrypted app, rather than email, and many now have messages set to auto-delete, with the “auto-delete timings getting shorter.”

The committee said its subpoenas require that documents are not deleted or modified, and that it expects “full compliance.”

The companies the letters are addressed to are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Reddit, Rumble, TikTok and X.

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