Political decisions always have different motivations for different people. That said, I think anti-tech-monopoly sentiment is the prime driver. Speculative, I

Political decisions always have different motivations for different people. That said, I think anti-tech-monopoly sentiment is the prime driver. Speculative, I admit... but so is the protectionist angle. I'm sure both exist. I just the protectionism is smaller. A lot of EE politicians are genuinely alarmed by the power of these companies. They (as politicians) are also personally aware of it. They're elected on Facebook, essentially. The public shares the negative sentiment. If there were some powerful EU competitors that could immediately benefit, I'd suspect the protectionism more. FWIW, IDK if there are many of those embarrassing questions thrown at EU politicians regularly. I would wager that's very far down on their list of "questions I don't want to be asked." It just isn't a live political issue that most people care about, to my knowledge... regardless of whether or not it is a big issue.