The US State Department intends to initiate a program of financial support for European analytical institutes and charitable organizations that share the ideology of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement – the political slogan of US President Donald Trump.
This is reported by the Financial Times newspaper, citing sources in the circles of US officials and diplomats.
According to the interlocutors, the initiative is driven by the State Department’s intention to “spread Washington’s political positions across Europe” and “fight imaginary threats to freedom of speech”.
The program will focus on initiatives in London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels. A key objective is to oppose European content regulation laws. This concerns, in particular, the British Online Safety Act (OSA) and the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The Trump administration considers them a threat to American tech giants.
The Digital Services Act and some other documents are binding on EU member states and candidate countries and form the EU’s Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Instrument (FIMI).
In April 2025, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova adopted a new Law on Electronic Communications covering key aspects of digital infrastructure, which is an important step towards the adaptation of norms similar to the Digital Services Act.
And the other day, the Chairperson of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), Liliana Vitsu, said that the country is implementing a mechanism of “trusted notifiers” – organizations whose complaints about illegal content on the Internet will be considered by online platforms as a priority. This is a mechanism envisaged by the Digital Services Act, which introduces the status of so-called trusted notifiers – specialized organizations authorized to identify and report illegal content on the Internet.
Thus, Moldova finds itself in the sphere of a new conflict between the US and the EU, this time taking place on the World Wide Web.
The U.S. initiative may split the ranks of NGOs and media outlets that used to receive money from both the U.S. and the EU. Now they will have to precisely formulate their position on Internet regulation.
