EU urges Biden to help draft joint rule book to rein in tech giants

European Union leaders assessed more measures to counter the spread of coronavirus variants during a video summit Thursday as the bloc’s top disease control official said urgent action was needed to stave off a new wave of hospitalizations and deaths. Picture: Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP

The European Union has called on Joe Biden to help draw up a common rule book to rein in the power of big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter and combat the spread of fake news that is eating away at Western democracies.

In a speech to the Davos World Economic Forum, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen urged the Biden administration to join forces against “the darker sides of the digital world”, which she said were partly behind the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.