The European Union may not be particularly popular with the bulk of the British press, but the last week has shown that the EU is one of the few organisations prepared to take on another favourite hate figure for much of the media – Silicon Valley.
On Wednesday, Apple was told by the European Commission to pay €13bn in taxes it is claimed it owes to Ireland. The move has little direct impact on media companies, yet it shows a willingness to act that isn’t found elsewhere. It also comes just days after reports of proposals from the EU to give news organisations the right to charge search engines such as Google for posting snippets of articles. The EU is also the source of the UK’s net neutrality rules which, going by updated rules issued on Wednesday, may be the only thing currently standing between them and attempts by mobile network Three to block all ads across its network.
Those media organisations that were so hostile to the EU in the run-up to Brexit may end up missing its role in balancing out the power found on the other side of the Atlantic.
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