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Microsoft has vowed to protect its European operations against interference from Donald Trump as technology is increasingly used as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said the company was “prepared to go to court” to fight efforts by “any government anywhere in the world” in the event that access to its internet infrastructure is blocked in Europe.
Microsoft pointed out it had sued Barack Obama’s administration four times to protect the privacy of its European users, and the Trump White House in 2018 over the rights of immigrant employees.
In a blog post, Mr Smith announced a series of commitments to safeguard Europe and pledged that the company would act as a “voice of reason” as the bloc grapples with a trade war with the United States.
“In a time of geopolitical volatility, we are committed to providing digital stability,” he said, adding that the company would “uphold Europe’s digital resilience regardless of geopolitical and trade volatility”.
Mr Smith also announced that the company would be changing its European leadership structure so that its data centre operations on the Continent were led by a board of directors made up solely of European citizens. He added it would expand its European data centre capacity by 40pc by 2027.
The comments come amid growing tensions between European leaders and the White House, which has accused Brussels of hamstringing American technology companies with red tape and punishing fines.
Mr Trump has compared penalties under the EU’s new digital regulations to tariffs, and warned that the bloc’s sprawling technology rules threaten to stifle free speech.
Mr Smith’s overtures to Europe come as other Silicon Valley technology giants have accused Brussels of unfairly targeting their businesses through the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act. Meta, Google and Apple have all delayed updates to their products in Europe amid disputes over its artificial intelligence (AI) and competition rules.
Last week, the EU issued fines worth more than $700m (£524m) to Meta and Apple over breaches of the bloc’s competition regulations. Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global affairs chief, accused the EU of attempting to “handicap successful American businesses.”
‘Overseas extortion’
In February, JD Vance, the US vice-president, accused “EU commissars” of threatening to “shut down social media”. Mr Trump accused European countries of “overseas extortion” by levying fines and digital taxes against American technology businesses.
The White House also suddenly paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine after a disastrous meeting between Mr Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.