According to reports in the Irish Times and RTE, Niamh Sweeney, a former senior Meta lobbyist, is set to join the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) as a commissioner in October. The DPC is the EU lead privacy regulator for most US Big Tech (such as Google, Microsoft or Meta) and was already notoriously pro-business. Prior to being entrusted with the responsibility of regulating US Big Tech, Sweeney spent more than 6 years at Meta. For 3.5 of those years, she was head of public policy at Facebook, Ireland, before becoming director of public policy for Europe at WhatsApp. With this appointment, the Irish government does not even pretend to care about enforcing EU law anymore.
- Press release by the DPC
- Link to a news story of RTE (the Irish Public Broadcaster)
- Link to Mrs Sweeney's LinkedIn Profile
DPC was so far "secretly" in bed with US Big Tech. For years, the Irish DPC has de facto not enforced the GDPR against US Big Tech. While officially issuing fines totalling billions, only 0.6% of them have ever been collected. This creates the impression of enforcement, but actually ensures that US Big Tech can operate in the European market without being bothered by strict EU digital laws.
Max Schrems: "For years, there was always some alleged 'reason' or 'problem' why the DPC 'unfortunately' was unable to enforce EU law in Ireland. We spent months in courts over these alleged reasons and problems, knowing that this follows a political playbook."
US Big Tech now officially policing itself. Now, Ireland has officially announced that it is handing over the Chair of the DPC to a US Big Tech lobbyist that defended Meta in a time where it was involved in the "Cambridge Analytica" scandal and during proceedings that led to a € 390 million fine over not collecting consent from users or a € 1.2 billion fine over illegally transferring personal data to the US, where such data is used by the US secret services. These cases are right now on appeal between the DPC and Meta – where Mrs Sweeney will now switch from defending Meta to managing the regulator that pursues these cases.
Max Schrems: "We now literally have a US big tech lobbyist policing US big tech for Europe. For 20 years, Ireland did not actually enforce EU law, but at least they had enough shame to undermine enforcement secretly."
Ireland officially kisses US Big Tech's ass. The announcement by the Irish government follows a US playbook, in which merely pleasing Big Tech or the Republican agenda behind the scenes is not sufficient anymore. US Big Tech and the Trump administration now demand that such actions are carried out publicly and officially. In a way, this may be "more honest", but it also marks a U-turn: in the past, politicians were at least ashamed of such dealings and tried to camouflage them in public.
Max Schrems: "We now witness a time where just pleasing US big tech behind the scenes is not enough anymore. The US demands that European countries publicly bow before US big tech."
Masks are off. The only benefit of this situation is that we might see some honesty about the position of the Irish government. For decades, the Irish government denied to be too close to US Big Tech. With this appointment, all masks seem to be off.
Max Schrems: "Just kissing the US's ass behind the scenes seems to be not enough anymore. Now, Ireland is officially kissing US Big Tech's backside on the global stage. At least this brings some honesty to the situation we've witnessed over the last 15 years."
