Europe On Cusp Of Mass Secret Censorship
Corporate news media and governments applaud crackdown on free speech as EU censorship officials work from new office in San Francisco
In Europe, as in the United States and other free nations, people are going about their business as normal. Christmas lights illuminate city centers, where people are shopping for gifts. Students are taking final examinations and preparing to come home from the university for the holidays. And people are having debates over social and political issues, in person and online, as though nothing has changed.
But something has changed: the European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation European Union, is in the midst of a sweeping crackdown on free speech. Its main target is X, formerly known as Twitter.
Unlike other large social media platforms, X has refused to comply with the secret censorship demands that Europe’s top censor, Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, has demanded.
In response, Breton opened “formal infringement proceedings” against the company owned by Elon Musk today. They include, according to Breton, “Suspected breach of obligations to counter #IllegalContent and#Disinformation.”