After years of silencing the world’s biggest tech companies and setting the standard for strict regulation around the world, Europe has blinked. Under intense pressure from industry and the US government, Brussels is removing protections from its flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and relaxing or delaying landmark AI rules in an effort to cut red tape and revive sluggish economic growth.
The proposed overhaul will not land quietly in Brussels, and if the development of the GDPR and AI Act is to go ahead, a political and lobbying storm is on its way. The GDPR is a cornerstone of Europe’s technology strategy and is as close to sacrosanct as a policy can be. The leaked draft has already sparked outrage among civil rights groups and politicians, who have accused the commission of weakening basic safeguards and bowing to pressure from Big Tech.
The decision comes after months of intense pressure from Big Tech and Donald Trump, as well as high-profile international figures such as ex-Italian Prime Minister and former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, who urged the bloc to weaken burdensome tech regulation. With very few exceptions, Europe has no credible competitors in the global AI race, which is dominated by American and Chinese companies like DeepSeek, Google, and OpenAI.
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