Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001868/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Petra Steger (PfE), Mary Khan (ESN)
On 21 January 2025, the Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, vowed to clamp down harder on alleged violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA). To this end, the number of staff working on DSA implementation is set to double from 100 in 2024 to 200 by the end of 2025. On 10 January 2025, the Commission reported that 150 people were already on the task. What is more, the Commission is working closely with national DSA coordinators. The official line is that they are cooperating to fight ‘disinformation’; in reality, however, they are increasingly taking aim at government-critical content. This turn of events is deeply worrying as while, across the globe, countries and companies are once again allowing greater freedom of expression and distancing themselves from excessive censorship, the EU is bucking the trend and and centralising more control with the Brussels thought police. This increasingly begs the question as to whether this apparatus is not being beefed up with ever more staff to form a politically controlled censorship machine, funded by EU taxpayers.
- 1.How many people have been hired in 2025 to work on the Digital Services Act? What specific criteria were used in their selection?
- 2.What was the total cost of this recruitment drive, and who is footing the bill?
- 3.What steps is the Commission taking to prevent the bolstered DSA troops from exerting political influence on public debate?
Submitted: 9.5.2025