Brussels (AFP)

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg was received by the European Commission on Monday to discuss internet regulation, two days before Brussels presented its artificial intelligence strategy.

The visit to Brussels of the founder of the largest social network, who also owns Instagram and Whatsapp, comes four weeks after that of the boss of Alphabet, Google's parent company, Sundar Pichai, who had called the EU for a "proportionate approach" to regulate artificial intelligence.

Mr. Zuckerberg has an appointment with the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of digital technology, Margrethe Vestager, the Industry Commissioner, Thierry Breton and the European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova.

The European Commission has launched a "preliminary investigation" against Google and Facebook to find out how they collect their users' personal data and for what purposes.

In an article published in the British business daily Financial Times on Monday, Zuckerberg said "tech giants need more regulation."

"I don't think private companies should make so many decisions on their own when it comes to fundamental democratic values," he writes.

And recalled that last year, he "called for regulation in four areas: elections, harmful content, privacy and data portability".

For his part, Commissioner Breton said in an interview with the French daily Les Echos on Monday that "the big platforms cannot continue to live by saying + we are a simple telecommunications network +. This world has lived."

"Everyone must take responsibility for the words and content that are exchanged online. This has so far been done on the basis of codes of conduct and voluntary approaches by the big players," he added. .

"Given the scale taken by certain abuses and the risks for democracy, we need a more restrictive and specific approach. We will build it without acrimony but with responsibility. This will be the subject of the + Digital Services Act + (major legislation on digital services, editor's note) that we are preparing for the end of the year, "he added.

© 2020 AFP