EUROPE has escalated its war against US tech superpowers as its two largest economies and the parliament backed fresh efforts to rein in the growing influence of companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google.

France and Germany asked the European Union to look into new competition rules and other regulations that better target the business practices of large technology firms.

At the same time, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution that calls for a possible break-up of Google.

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The moves came a day after privacy regulators asked Google and others to extend the EU’s new “right to be forgotten” to their websites outside the Continent, and follows a push by British politicians to have social media firms do more to comb their services for extremist content.

Apple, Facebook and Google declined to comment.

EU authorities increasingly have chaffed at the dominance of US internet firms in their markets.

These Silicon Valley companies have huge revenue and global reach, but officials say they pay relatively little in taxes and slip beyond the reach of some national regulations.

“Internet companies are disrupting the hierarchy of governance,” said James Waterworth, head of the European office for Computer and Communications Industry Association, a US-based trade group.

“National governments can’t keep up with them, and they are scrambling to reassert control.”

The battles could reverberate well beyond Europe’s borders.

The principle of the online “right to be forgotten” is being debated in the US and Asia.

European efforts to crack down on the tax affairs of firms such as Amazon and Apple are helping advance an international push to update tax treaties for the digital age.

Detractors say a wave of new regulations could discourage investment in Europe and leave the Continent behind in the race for technological dominance, despite a new crop of promising startups.

Some in the US decry what they describe as a new era of cyber-protectionism.

“There are a number of issues from privacy to surveillance that are relevant and should be tackled. But the discussion around these issues is being polluted by protectionism,” said Mario Mariniello, an economist who studies competition policy and regulation for Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

EU officials insisted their proposals were not protectionist and would encourage European companies to become more competitive.

Still, the co-ordinated Franco-German proposal — while lacking specific recommendations — adds heft to long-simmering demands in Paris and Berlin for rules to help rein in the growing influence of a cadre of largely US tech firms.

In France, officials frequently refer to “les Gafa”, an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, when discussing the power of big internet companies.

Sam Schechner

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