In a regulatory climate where the Trump Administration sought to roll back state laws on artificial intelligence (AI) and major tech players intend to bankroll pro-AI candidates in the 2026 midterm elections, a major agency is imploring Big Tech to not comply with high-profile digital laws in Europe.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson warned Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., and Microsoft Corp. that compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety and Investigatory Powers Acts violates U.S. law by weakening privacy and data security protections for American consumers.
“Foreign governments seeking to limit free expression or weaken data security in the United States might count on the fact that companies have an incentive to simplify their operations and legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies across jurisdictions,” Ferguson said in a letter to the companies last week.
Ferguson noted that as companies consider how to comply with foreign laws and demands, they are required to comply with the FTC Act’s prohibition against unfair and deceptive practices in the marketplace. For example, if a company promises consumers that it encrypts or secures online communications but then adopts weaker security in response to demands from a foreign government, “such an action could be considered a deceptive practice under the FTC Act,” the letter said.
Ferguson’s warning underscores growing hostilities between overseas regulatory policies and U.S. data privacy laws as the EU and UK implement stricter digital content rules to improve user safety and curb harmful material online.
The UK’s Online Safety Act (2023) and EU’s Digital Services Act (2024) require tech companies to monitor and remove harmful content like misinformation, hate speech, and violence-promoting material. Companies face substantial fines—potentially billions—for non-compliance. These regulations create challenges for U.S. tech firms operating globally, as they must balance compliance with foreign laws while following U.S. legal frameworks.
Conversely, the Trump Administration attempted, but failed, to prohibit state and local regulation of AI for a decade as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July.
Meanwhile, Meta, Silicon Valley venture-capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, and tech executives from OpenAI and elsewhere are backing pro-AI political action committees (PACs) to support “pro-AI” candidates in the 2026 midterms, as well as oppose strict legislation.
