Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, on behalf of the European Commission, has signalled that existing EU digital and criminal law instruments already address the cross-border network of men drugging and abusing women exposed by a CNN investigation, and that the Commission is monitoring platform compliance. In a written answer on 22 June 2026 to a question by MEP Jeroen Lenaers (PPE), Virkkunen stressed that the Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges hosting providers to remove illegal content and notify threats to life or safety, while Directive (EU) 2024/1385 criminalises the most serious forms of cyberviolence, including non-consensual sharing of intimate material. The answer did not announce new legislative proposals, instead pointing to ongoing enforcement: the Commission opened formal proceedings against X in January 2026 over sexualised deepfakes, and noted that Dutch authorities are investigating Motherless.com, whose servers are in the Netherlands. Telegram, which is not designated as a very large online platform, has its legal representative in Belgium and falls under the Belgian Digital Services Coordinator.
The answer confirms the Commission's view that the DSA's systemic risk assessment obligations for very large platforms can cover gender-based violence, and that Member States must rapidly transpose the cyberviolence directive. Virkkunen offered no specific timeline for additional measures, but the reference to the X proceedings signals that enforcement actions under the DSA are the primary tool. The Commission's stance is likely to reassure victims' rights groups that existing rules are being used, while critics may argue that the lack of new targeted measures leaves gaps, particularly for platforms like Telegram that are not classified as very large. The answer also places responsibility on national authorities – the Dutch and Belgian regulators – for direct enforcement against the platforms named in the investigation.