European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that shaping new global digital regulation together was paramount.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been waiting for. This sense of relief ... should not lead us to making any illusions. Trump may be consigned to history in a few hours, but his followers remain.”

Von der Leyen said that while it might not be possible “to completely eliminate any of these dark forces” of the kind of incitement that led to the storming of the US Capitol, hate speech and fake news must not be allowed to circulate freely on the internet.

“This political power, unbridled power held by the big internet giants must be reined in”, Von der Leyen said.

Von der Leyen proposed in her speech setting up a EU-US Common Technology Council as a first step to draw up a template for global digital regulation that others around the world could follow.

From regulating artificial intelligence to complex algorithms based on vast amounts of data, the EU wants restrictions that would not at the same time limit the benefits of technology, such as self-driving cars or sharing data to fight diseases.