For tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the EU's digital rules are a tool of censorship. For the bloc, they are its most powerful weapon to stop the spread of illegal content.

The rules, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), will be debated in the European Parliament Tuesday, as dozens of lawmakers pile pressure on Brussels to enforce measures aimed at taming the worst excesses of social media.

But the law's detractors -- including hard-right members of the EU parliament itself -- support Musk and Zuckerberg's argument, and accuse Brussels of censoring free speech.

The DSA does not define what is legal or illegal online in the European Union.

What it does is force digital companies, big and small, to ensure there is an effective system in place to report and remove content that breaches existing national or EU laws.

In other words, it makes sure that if it is forbidden in the real world, it is banned on the world wide web too.

For example, Nazi symbols are outlawed in Germany while several European countries including France and the Netherlands prohibit denying the Holocaust.

EU tech........

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