America is not the world’s piggy bank, nor will we meekly accept gross discrimination against our tech companies anymore, President Donald Trump assured the world.
In a late Monday Truth Social post, Trump slammed foreign governments for weaponizing legislation to discriminate unfairly against American tech companies and in favor of Communist Chinese tech companies. For too long, dictatorial nations’ companies have received favorable treatment while U.S. companies have been international punching bags, according to Trump.
Trump wrote, “As the President of the United States, I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies. Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”
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For example, the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act are among the laws that governments have used to pressure American tech companies to censor free speech, provide personal user data to foreign governments, and take other pernicious actions. The problematic and apparently anti-competitive laws referred to by Trump also disadvantage the American companies in other ways, as Trump highlighted.
Trump angrily described the hypocrisy at play in the international economy, saying of other nations, “They also, outrageously, give a complete pass to China's largest Tech Companies. This must end, and end NOW!”
Indeed, Trump is not merely complaining without having a solution. He already imposed tariffs on Brazil and slammed UK officials for attacking free speech through targeting content on American social media platforms, and he’s looking to step up such actions. “With this TRUTH, I put all Countries with Digital Taxes, Legislation, Rules, or Regulations, on notice that unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as President of the United States, will impose substantial additional Tariffs on that Country's Exports to the U.S.A., and institute Export restrictions on our Highly Protected Technology and Chips,” he stated.
In conclusion, Trump announced, “America, and American Technology Companies, are neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer. Show respect to America and our amazing Tech Companies or, consider the consequences! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump’s caution to foreign countries comes just after his Federal Trade Commission chairman, Andrew Ferguson, warned U.S. Big Tech against caving to foreign censorship demands as they have previously.
He wrote to more than a dozen companies, “I am concerned that these actions by foreign powers to impose censorship and weaken end-to-end encryption will erode Americans’ freedoms and subject them to myriad harms, such as surveillance by foreign governments and an increased risk of identity theft and fraud.”
Free speech and free trade are key tenets of Americanism. They must be protected. And Trump, fortunately, has decided to end the decades of rigging and unfair treatment of America in the international economy, putting America First instead.
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