Digital regulations in foreign countries are exporting their censorship laws, lawmakers say

As American tech companies face increasing pressure from foreign digital laws, U.S. lawmakers are warning that aggressive foreign oversight is forcing online platforms to adopt policies that infringe upon free speech and the First Amendment rights of Americans. 

Congressional investigators have expanded their scrutiny beyond Europe to confront a global wave of digital regulations that impact American technology companies. Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee released a report that cited a record $410 million fine levied by South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) against U.S-owned, South Korea-based company Coupang, accusing Seoul of weaponizing digital regulations to disadvantage American firms. 

“I think it's very serious, and even in the short term, just this attack on American companies we're seeing around the world. Coupang in South Korea is the latest example, but it's been going on in Europe,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said in an interview on the Just the News, No Noise show on Wednesday.

The Coupang Crackdown and the Rise of Digital Surveillance

The House Judiciary Committee’s 35-page report accused South Korea of discriminating against U.S. tech companies after PIPC slapped a $410 million fine on Coupang, known as the country’s “Amazon.” 

This followed a data breach at Coupang involving as many as 37.6 million accounts, exposing the personal data of more than 70% of the country's population, according to the PIPC in South Korea. 

However, the House committee accused South Korea of discrimination, noting that it was the largest fine ever imposed, despite other data breaches involving Chinese companies that were arguably more severe. It also condemned its threats of criminal charges toward Coupang interim CEO Harold L. Rogers, an American citizen.

“Unfortunately, the ROK recently leveraged a low-sensitivity data leak in November 2025 as a pretext to launch a whole-of-government assault on Coupang,” an April letter signed by 54 Republican lawmakers to the South Korean ambassador reads. 

Beyond Coupang, the committee’s report accused South Korea of using digital regulations and competition policy to disadvantage American technology companies, criticizing its digital platform legislation, which it said was modeled after the EU’s Digital Markets Act. The DMA regulates large tech companies designed as "gatekeepers," with its stated goal being to make the "digital sector fairer and more contestable."

Backed by left-leaning President Lee Jae-myung and spearheaded by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the Online Platform Markets Act in Korea and other competition policies could cost the U.S. $525 billion in lost economic activity over the next decade, the Competere Foundation reported. 

Meanwhile, amendments to South Korea’s Information and Communications Network Act took effect on Tuesday, requiring online platforms and American companies such as Google, Meta and X, to block “false and manipulated” information and which can prosecute CEOs of tech companies if they refuse.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson called on Seoul Thursday, warning against “disproportionate burdens” on U.S. platforms and against excessive content regulation and censoring speech. 

“The United States has significant concerns with the ROK government’s approval of an amendment to the Network Act that risks negatively impacting the business of U.S.-based online platforms and undermining free speech,” the department's press office told The Korea Times. 

This is not the first time that the U.S. has raised concerns about the act.

“South Korea’s proposed amendment to its Network Act, ostensibly focused on redressing defamatory deepfakes, reaches much further — and endangers tech cooperation,” Sarah Rogers, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy also wrote in a post on X in December last year. Rogers also visited South Korea in April and shared these concerns with Minister of Public Diplomacy Lim Sang-woo.

Europe’s Digital Services Act

South Korea's recent digital policies mirror trends sweeping Europe, which has been the subject of U.S. government criticism for how it impacts American technology companies. 

“When it comes to the technology companies, it's censorship as well, limiting what can be said in Europe, ultimately impacts what we can say in America,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Just the News. 

In February 2026, Jordan released an interim report targeting the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). The committee argued that European moderation rules end up silencing free speech and viewpoints even in America, since tech companies maintain single, global content policies.

“Though often framed as combating so-called 'hate speech' or 'disinformation,' the European Commission worked to censor true information and political speech about some of the most important policy debates in recent history,” the report said, which said this included debates on COVID-19, mass immigration, and transgender issues. 

And as part of its string of investigations on digital censorship, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued subpoenas to several technology companies in February – and reiterated the demands in letters to firms including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Reddit, Rumble, TikTok and xAI, seeking their disclosure of communications with foreign governments and their compliance with censorship laws. 

Since the subpoenas were issued, the technology companies have produced thousands of internal documents and communications with EU Member States and the European Commission, the report said. 

“Documents produced to the Committee under subpoena reveal that the European Commission successfully pressured major social media platforms to change their global content moderation rules, directly harming American online speech in the United States,” said the press release accompanying the report. 

“They're so regulatory, the burden there is so, so extreme, it's tough for companies to even make it in Europe, so they're shaking down America,” said Jordan. “But it's this whole mindset they have, and what it results in is an attack on American companies,” he said.

The EU's Digital Services Act, which entered into force in 2022, is a sweeping regulation enacted to minimize exposure to “illegal and harmful content," which allows tech companies to quickly remove content flagged as disinformation and allows users to report content for removal.

Under the DSA, Elon Musk’s social media platform X was fined $140 million for regulatory breaches, Jordan's committee noted. The European Commission cited breaches including insufficient advertising transparency, “deceptive” blue checkmark practices that allowed anyone paying $8 a month to verify their identity, and restrictions blocking researchers from using automated tools to gather public data. 

“The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage,” Vice President JD Vance had posted on X ahead of the decision, and accused the Commission of punishing X “for not engaging in censorship.” 

As the EU fines non-compliant platforms up to 6% of their global revenue, the Trump administration also launched an offensive against the Digital Services Act in August 2025, with the State Department ordering U.S. diplomats in Europe to lobby governments to repeal or amend the DSA, as detailed in an internal cable obtained by Reuters.

For U.S. lawmakers, the shifting global landscape remains an urgent priority. Chairman Jim Jordan argued that foreign regulatory crackdowns such as the South Korean government's recent actions against Coupang combine aggressive enforcement against companies with restrictions on free expression.

“This is a real concern, something our community has been digging into from a censorship perspective, and then also just the basic perspective of other countries trying to shake down American companies,” Jordan said. He added that they “right now can't compete with American companies, but they're trying to change that.”