European countries are increasing regulatory pressure on social media companies in response to public outcry over child safety issues, but the move could trigger a backlash in the United States - Facebook, Musk's X and other technology giants are American companies. Spain on Tuesday ordered prosecutors to investigate Facebook parent company Meta, X and TikTok over accusations of spreading AI-generated images of child pornography, following similar action in the UK.

Ireland has also officially launched an investigation into Grok, an AI chatbot owned by X, focusing on its handling of personal data and the generation of harmful pornographic images.

In recent weeks, a growing number of European countries - France, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Slovenia and the Czech Republic - have followed Australia's lead and proposed bans on social media use by teenagers amid growing concerns about internet addiction, cyberbullying and academic decline.

Germany and the UK are also considering similar moves.

These national-level actions reflect both political urgency and frustration with the EU. Politicians, consultants and analysts say governments are acting alone because they suspect the EU (Brussels) is not moving fast enough or hard enough - even though individual countries face the same legal, diplomatic and enforcement obstacles as the EU.

geopolitical tensions

The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), which comes into force in 2024, stipulates that large platforms can be fined up to 6% of their global annual turnover if they fail to curb illegal or harmful content.

But enforcing penalties is politically risky. U.S. President Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions if EU countries impose new technology taxes or enforce the Digital Services Act in a way that cracks down on U.S. companies.

The European Commission denied being soft on U.S. tech giants and said in an online statement on Tuesday that it had opened investigations into a number of companies, including X and its Grok.

"Through measures such as the Digital Services Act, the EU is shaping Europe's digital future. We support, fund and regulate new technologies with the goal of strengthening democracy," the statement said.

The rhetoric on both sides was sometimes heated.

French President Emmanuel Macron last year called U.S. resistance to European regulations a "geopolitical struggle."

The Trump administration warned in December that Europe was facing the “death of civilization” and urged the United States to “resist Europe’s current trajectory.”

Spanish Consumer Rights Minister Baston Duy told Continental in an interview on Tuesday that Spain's crackdown was aimed at "breaking away from digital dependence on the United States," adding that some platforms were being used to "undermine European democracy from within."

Countries act independently

Denmark's independent action was prompted by July 14 changes to guidance in the Digital Services Act allowing countries to enact age limit laws, Denmark's Ministry of Digitalization told Reuters.

Spain's Youth and Children Minister Rego said the incident in which Grok generated non-consensual pornographic images of minors ultimately prompted the country to propose a ban on social media for people under 16 and legislation to hold social media CEOs accountable for hate speech, after months of planning for action.

For Macron, who blames social media for fueling youth violence, the turning point was the fatal stabbing of a school assistant by a 14-year-old student in June. He said he would push for an EU-wide ban on teenagers' use of social media and that France would take unilateral action if necessary.

Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis said reading Jonathan Haidt's "The Anxious Generation" - which argues that smartphones and social media are "reshaping" children's brains - was "an eye-opening experience".

"We are conducting the largest unregulated experiment ever conducted on children's brains," he said.

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