Dramatic turn of events in Brussels: French Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, slammed the door of the European Commission on Monday, September 16, saying he had been disowned by President Ursula von der Leyen. The former big boss will leave his mark on the institution. He became known to the general public above all for his fight against the abuse of power by digital giants. A look back at his unusual career as a business leader and European politician.
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At the time of his appointment, at the end of 2019, to the post of European Commissioner with a broad portfolio – industrial policy, internal market, digital, defence and space –, Thierry Breton is the head of the French technology group Atos. He was previously responsible for other major French “tech” groups: Bull, Thomson Multimedia, France Telecom. With a career that ticks many boxes by mixing public, private and political, as well as a good knowledge of the industry, he becomes the first major business leader to enter the great institution of the European executive.
The architect of digital regulation in Europe
Responsible in particular for digital, Thierry Breton is in his element and will be at the helm in the investigations targeting X (formerly Twitter), Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok. His hobbyhorse: the alleged dissemination of “false information” and “hate speech”. He is thus the architect of two texts that impose new obligations and prohibitions to put an end to abuses of dominant position and laissez-faire in the dissemination of illegal content: the “Digital Services Act” (DSA) and the “Digital Markets Act” (DMA), which will be landmarks according to Geoffray Brunaux, professor of law and digital specialist:
” The DSA and DMA marked a step forward in theEuropean Union in the regulation of digital activities, with the desire for greater responsibility and transparency of digital players, but also the predominance of certain companies. This was necessary, because the previous regulation dating from 2000 had a number of flaws, and it was really the first European regulation of digital commerce. »
A direct style, against the established order
In the sights of Thierry Breton in particular during his term at the European Commission: Elon Muskthe boss of X, with whom he publicly crossed swords via social networks. The two men met several times and initially seemed to like each other. But the multiplication of X’s accusations led them to increasingly hostile exchanges, which provoked distrust among some within the European Commission.
Thierry Breton is therefore also a direct style and a character who takes care of his disruptive image. He willingly wants to be the new sheriff of the web with this sentence which will also remain in the memories: ” The Internet cannot remain a Wild West. »
But the former Minister of Economy was not only the architect of the regulation of the digital world at European level. He was also the one who played a decisive role during the Covid-19 crisis as head of the European task force on vaccinesThe former European Commissioner was also a fierce defender of nuclear power, a sector that he helped to rehabilitate within the European Commission despite German distrust.
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