As Donald Trump sheds the spotlight on Europe’s digital regulations, accusing them of censorship, the tragic death of French streamer Raphaël Graven highlights the opposite issue, the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has so far proven ineffective laws about technology in preventing real world harm.
Kick, an Australian platform without an EU legal representative, broadcast Graven’s decline unchecked, highlighting the DSA’s enforcement paralysis 18 months after adoption.
Brussels has yet to issue a single fine for content failures, prioritizing caution over precedent while citizens remain vulnerable. The case drew global headlines, prompting prosecutors to launch a criminal investigation into Kick and pushing Digital Minister Clara Chappaz to announce plans to sue the platform.
What Happened to Tech Rules in Europe?
The DSA was meant to create a safer Digital Services Act compliance environment by splitting enforcement duties between national regulators for smaller platforms like Kick and the European Commission for tech giants with over 45 million monthly users such as Meta and Apple. In practice, however, enforcement has stalled.
Europe’s biggest problem isn’t making too many rules, it’s that the ones it already has aren’t being used strongly enough. The Europe digital services act was sold as a shield to protect people from online dangers, but Graven’s painful death shows how fragile that shield really is. His story reminds us that behind the talk of laws and policies are real lives, and when enforcement fails, it’s ordinary people who pay the price. It shows that promises of safety mean little without action to back them up. Until Europe’s laws about technology turn rules into real protection, tragedies like this may keep repeating.
Eighteen months after the law took effect, Brussels has yet to impose a single fine for content moderation failures. Even its headline case against Elon Musk’s X has lingered for more than a year without resolution. Officials appear cautious, worried that early EU’s digital services act rulings would set precedents defining the limits of responsibility for online platforms.
Critics say this caution is leaving citizens exposed.
“The law is not perfect,” admitted French centrist MEP Pierre-Marie Vedrenne, who told The Capitals that lawmakers “know that we need to work on not only new legislation but on enforceability to give more tools to the European Commission side.”
By contrast, the EU’s other digital growth strategy, known as the Digital Markets Act, has already fined Apple and Meta for antitrust laws in the US are designed to create regulation.
Strategy Not Technology Drives Digital Transformation
In Brussels, the digital ecosystem strategy remains politically sensitive, with President Trump threatening tariffs on nations adopting “digital taxes, legislation, rules or regulation,” while his Vice President J.D. Vance, called the antitrust and competition law a free speech threat earlier this year. Yet the law’s biggest problem appears to be weakness, not overreach.
Green Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alexandra Geese recently expressed frustration at the Commission’s hesitance. After Trump’s latest criticism, she noted that EU’s digitization strategy framework tech chief Henna Virkkunen’s only response was a selfie with her dog.
“It would be very much appreciated if the Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty could fight for European democracy,” Geese said. “Start doing it!”
Europe’s first mindset is evident that the main challenge for antitrust regulators is as it braces for the next frontier, AI. As chatbots gain sophistication, users are forming emotional bonds with them, an issue for which the EU has no clear framework. The Graven case exposes the gap between rules on paper and protections in practice.
The DSA was never going to tame the internet overnight.
As online harm outpaces regulators, Europe’s focus on strategy over enforceable laws about technology risks leaving citizens unprotected, questioning its digital sovereignty experiment.
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