By Joe Litobarski, Democracy Editor
Imagine the United States had a democratic dashboard to judge the health of their political system. Right now, almost all the lights would be flashing red. Democracy relies on shared norms of civil dialogue and behaviour, and America’s political culture – built on addictive, rage-driven and hyper-partisan digital media – has grown frighteningly radicalised, paranoid, cruel, and sectarian.
A large swathe of the dashboard lights would have turned red after the January 6 Capitol attack. More would have lit up after such a blatant insurrection attempt was subsequently normalised by the Trump administration as acceptable and even heroic. Militia plots have tripled in five years, politicians have been attacked and killed, and the recent shooting of Charlie Kirk has now poured fuel on the fire. America has a political violence problem.
The institutions democracy relies on are also being aggressively undermined. Project 2025 pushes the illiberal idea that the president alone embodies the popular will. Federal employees are purged, and universities, media, and courts all pressured to conform. More red lights.
There are brave green and amber lights still flashing on the dashboard. Some institutions still hold: courts, juries, civil society and much of the press. None of this is guaranteed, but it could matter in the 2026 midterms.
Europe’s dashboard is now turning red. A recent study from the European Council on Foreign Relations shows how the Trump administration is actively exporting its culture wars to Europe, promoting ethno-nationalist allies and shifting debates around “free speech” to weaken liberal norms. Elon Musk, the owner of X, beamed in by video-link to a far-right rally in the UK and warned that “violence is coming to you… you either fight back or you die.” In the Netherlands, far-right thugs blended with football hooligans, torching police cars, attacking the offices of a political party, and spreading footage through social media.
Left unchecked, the red lights will spread until our dashboard resembles the US dashboard. Europe has outsourced too much of its digital infrastructure to US tech platforms whose incentives – and corporate culture of digital utopianism and cyberlibertarianism – run counter to European democratic norms and values. A handful of Silicon Valley giants have used deep pockets and powerful network effects to concentrate control of EU digital infrastructure in a few private hands. Algorithms now reward outrage because outrage holds attention. And US tech-oligarchs answer, in the end, to an increasingly chauvinistic and revisionist techno-authoritarian state.
The EU should unplug from US tech and build its own democratic tech base. “Digital sovereignty” means reducing dependence on US tech and building a public sphere on digital tech that European law can credibly govern. Many of the policy tools to do this already exist, and moves like the ASML-Mistral strategic partnership on European AI are a good sign that an alternative can be built.
First, call out what is happening in the US. European governments are routinely mocked for issuing statements of “grave concern” when it comes to anti-democratic behaviour by Russia or China, but they are too timid to do even this when it comes to the US. The EU should see the US as an emerging techno-authoritarian “systemic rival” and clearly condemn democratic backsliding. At the absolute least, start issuing statements of “grave concern” about the health of US democracy. Even better, argue plainly that platforms exporting these toxic dynamics into the EU creates systemic risk for European democracy.
Second, enforce existing rules on illegal content and incitement. Incitement to violence is already prohibited under national and EU law but enforcement is weak. Treat repeat failures as compliance breaches with penalties beyond mere fines. Banning a social media platform like X would be politically and legally challenging, but it should be on the table. If US tech companies want to operate in the Single Market, they must comply with EU law.
Third, start breaking up monopolies. Don’t let public communication depend on any platform that one owner can abuse to steer users down radicalisation pathways. Use competition law where needed (up to structural separation), and work to support media pluralism. Where existing enforcement tools are too narrow and reactive to address entrenched platform power, new instruments may be required.
Fourth, build a democratic EU tech base. In the 20th century, Europe built public-service media for the broadcast age. Today it needs public-interest infrastructure for the digital age. The Commission and Member State governments should revisit the 1990s vision of a “European information society” distinct from the American model. The EuroStack discourse is a step in the right direction.
Democracy works when citizens can reason together in a public sphere that supports peaceful co-existence and civil dialogue to manage collective problems. That requires communications infrastructure and institutions built to promote dialogue, not monetise attention. America is showing Europe what happens when you privatise the public sphere and let a handful of owners set the rules. The EU does not have to repeat that mistake. If Europe wants to keep its dashboard lights green, it should invest in digital democracy – and that means starting the long process of unplugging from US tech.
