Law-Making for Sale - How America Writes Europe’s Tech Code
They said Europe was regulating Big Tech. Instead, Washington wrote the drafts. Free speech as weapon, lobbying as diplomacy, Europe’s digital empire managed from across the Atlantic.
Europe loves the sound of the word sovereignty.
It rolls off every politician’s tongue, digital sovereignty, economic sovereignty, strategic sovereignty.
But every time they say it, Washington grins. Because Europe’s laws are not written in Europe anymore. They’re negotiated, line by line, over dinner with American diplomats carrying corporate talking points.
This isn’t partnership. It’s remote control with better manners.
The Lobby in Diplomatic Clothing
In August, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio ordered American diplomats across Europe to mount what he called a “lobbying blitz” against the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the twin EU laws meant to restrain the Silicon Valley giants.
The reason, officially? Protecting “free speech.”
The reason, in truth? Protecting money.
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These diplomats weren’t promoting policy. They were sales reps with immunity.
Emails, closed-door meetings, friendly “technical consultations”, all under the flag of “dialogue.”
And Brussels, as usual, bowed to the language of partnership.
They call it diplomacy.
Let’s be honest, it’s infiltration in a tailored suit.
The Gospel According to Washington
Every paragraph of the DSA that hurts profits becomes a “threat to innovation.”
Every enforcement mechanism is “anti-American.”
Every EU commissioner who blinks gets invited to a “stakeholder roundtable.”
It’s a holy war of soft power, with lobbyists for priests and talking points for scripture.
The message is clear: Europe, regulate carefully, or we’ll make your markets tremble.
The United States doesn’t bully Europe anymore.
It teaches it to self-censor.
The Comedy of European Courage
Brussels pretends to be brave.
Press conferences, hashtags, press releases: “The EU leads the world in ethical technology.”
And yet, when the moment comes to enforce a fine, someone whispers about “geopolitical harmony,” and the numbers magically shrink.
The European Commission doesn’t negotiate laws; it negotiates approval.
You can almost smell the fear under the perfume of competence.
Every bureaucrat calls it “balance.”
That’s just another word for obedience in beige.
The Real Digital Divide
Forget all that crap about innovation gaps and startups.
The real digital divide is this:
America owns the servers.
Europe owns the PowerPoint slides explaining why that’s fine.
Ask a data officer in Brussels why the Schrems II ruling, which banned US data transfers, was quietly neutered through “temporary frameworks.”
They’ll say, “It’s complex.”
That’s bureaucratic code for we lost, but we’re too polite to admit it.
The Myth of Regulation
The Digital Services Act was supposed to rein in the chaos, protect users, limit manipulation, make algorithms accountable.
Instead, it became a monument to the art of doing nothing loudly.
Companies write “risk reports” about themselves, the Commission praises “progress,” and Big Tech continues business as usual.
The Digital Markets Act was worse: it turned “anti-monopoly” into a spreadsheet of exemptions.
Now Apple, Google, and Meta simply pay compliance consultants to redesign the loopholes.
Regulation became a subscription model.
The Free Speech Scam
The U.S. tells Europe the DSA will hurt “free speech.”
This, from the same country where platforms ban journalists, candidates, and even presidents when it’s politically convenient.
Free speech is no longer a right. It’s a trade license, granted to the highest bidder.
America exports it like a product, patents the word, and then invoices Europe for “partnership maintenance.”
Europe pretends to regulate speech, but it’s already algorithmically colonized.
The rules are written in Silicon Valley, the propaganda is printed in Brussels, and the audience claps for both.
The Machinery Behind the Curtain
Follow the money.
The same think tanks advising the European Commission on “digital ethics” receive funding from Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
The same NGOs calling for “responsible regulation” share office space with lobby firms registered in D.C.
The same academics writing about “digital resilience” attend “leadership retreats” sponsored by Amazon Web Services.
That’s not influence, that’s ownership with a European accent.
When Washington talks about defending democracy online, it doesn’t mean protecting voters.
It means protecting data pipelines and narrative infrastructure.
And the EU, the great moral machine, keeps paying for its own capture.
The Polite Empire
Empires used to march in with flags.
Now they whisper through “bilateral consultations.”
Empires used to occupy cities.
Now they occupy minds , through glowing screens and regulatory drafts written by smiling diplomats.
Europe thinks it’s being civilized.
It’s being domesticated.
The Human Layer
Ask a coder in Paris or Berlin who actually owns their tools,
Ask a journalist in Warsaw why their audience reach depends on U.S. algorithms,
Ask a regulator in Brussels why their law needs “alignment with American standards.”
You’ll see the same shrug, the same fatigue, the same quiet surrender.
Europe doesn’t need new rules.
It needs a nervous breakdown, the moment when you finally look in the mirror and realize you’re wearing your master’s suit.
The Hard Truth
Europe didn’t lose its digital war.
It sold it.
Piece by piece, policy by policy, wrapped in friendship and signed in dollars.
The continent that once exported philosophy now imports permission.
Its leaders talk about values while begging for access.
Its media celebrates resistance while quoting lobbyists.
This isn’t governance.
It’s the management of decline, outsourced to the polite faces of empire.
A. Kade
“Empires don’t always invade. Sometimes they email the draft.”
Read more from this series:
🔹 Green Money, Grey Influence — How Brussels Funds Its Own Lobby
🔹 The Three Roads of Rebellion — Le Pen, Meloni & Georgescu
🔹 NATO Exercises: Rehearsing Fear
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