Why has the EU been late in regulating social media platforms?

Abstract

In 2021 and 2022, the European Union (EU) launched a series of proposals aimed at improv-ing internet regulation, benefiting both European industries and services, as well as Euro-pean consumers or internet users. These measures have been watched from around theglobe because they can be seen as afirst attempt to create a meta-level regulatory environ-ment for the digital economy that effectively challenges the domination of the Big Tech con-glomerates of the US and China. However, even if the new EU regulation proves effective,how effective can they be in challenging the fundamental dynamics of the internet anddigital economy that the internet enables? In the present article, we attempt to answerwhy the EU has been late in regulating social media platforms, which play a central rolein the internet-based digital economy. We will base our argumentation on a criticalreading of the history of the internet and its regulation from its early days to the 2020s.