X owner Musk has repeatedly clashed with EU regulators, while some European politicians have accused him of meddling in elections, such as with his streamed conversation with the leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany. Musk has said the criticism is an affront to democracy and free speech.

The European Commission said on Friday it was stepping up its investigation into whether Elon Musk's social media network X breached EU rules on content moderation with requests for information and an order for it to retain relevant documents.

The pushback comes as the emboldened leaders of US tech companies, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, have been courting President-elect Donald Trump, with Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg urging him directly to combat EU regulatory enforcement.

Google has told the EU it will not comply with a forthcoming fact-checking law, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Axios. The company states that it will not be adding fact checks to search results or YouTube videos and will not use fact-checking data when ranking or removing content.

After Mark Zuckerberg's big announcement that Meta will no longer fact check, Google is also sending a message to the European Union: The search giant is opting out of a new EU law that requires fact checks.

Austrian privacy advocate NOYB has launched its first GDPR complaints against Chinese businesses. The organization has filed complaints against TikTok, Xiaomi, Shein, AliExpress, Temu and WeChat, alleging that these companies unlawfully shared information about European users with parties in China.

TikTok, Shein, Xiaomi and three other Chinese companies were named in a privacy complaint filed on Thursday by Austrian advocacy group Noyb which claimed the firms were unlawfully sending European Union user data to China.

Austrian advocacy group Noyb has filed privacy complaints against TikTok and five other Chinese companies in the EU. Noyb claims that these tech firms are unlawfully transferring the data of users in the European Union to China.

The European Union should end sanctions against Russia because Donald Trump’s administration is poised to usher in a “new era” from next week, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In a Friday interview, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban emphasized the need to renew the EU's relationship with Russia. He called on the European Union to stop the policy of intensifying sanctions.