“We are Monitoring”: EU Censor Threatens Musk Ahead of the Trump Interview
By Jonathan Turley | August 13, 2024
Read more at https://jonathanturley.org/2024/08/13/we-are-monitoring-eu-censor-threatens-musk-ahead-of-the-trump-interview/
In my new book on free speech and various columns, I write about the European Digital Services Act (DSA) as one of the greatest assaults on free speech in history. One of the most notorious anti-free speech figures in the world is European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Thierry Breton. Where some censor’s express reluctance in their work, Breton is chillingly enthusiastic in threatening those with opposing views with charges and financial ruin. The latest is Elon Musk for his decision to interview former President Donald Trump.
After Musk bought Twitter and pledged to dismantle much of the company’s massive censorship system, Breton went after the company at the urging of Hillary Clinton.
For those who criticized the European Union as a dangerous step toward a transnational governance system, Breton is the personification of their worst fears. He has wielded the sweeping powers and vague standards of the DSA to force companies to engage in comprehensive censorship regardless of national laws or their own values.
As I wrote in the book:
“Under the DSA, users are ’empowered to report illegal content online and online platforms will have to act quickly.’ This includes speech that is viewed not only as ‘disinformation’ but also ‘incitement.’ European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager has been one of the most prominent voices seeking international censorship. At the passage of the DSA, Vestager was ecstatic in declaring that it is ‘not a slogan anymore, that what is illegal offline should also be seen and dealt with as illegal online. Now it is a real thing. Democracy’s back.’”
This week, Breton was irate that Musk was giving Trump a forum on X, formerly Twitter. He was not the only one. The interview was interrupted by what Musk said was a distributed denial-of-service (DDS) attack by people trying to prevent the interview.
Notably, a DDS attack interrupted a prior interview with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Like Breton, many were working tirelessly to prevent others from hearing opposing views.
Breton threatened Musk that the EU was watching and that the Trump interview could bring crippling sanctions under the DSA: “As there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in [the EU] in connection with events with major audience around the world, I sent this letter to @elonmusk.”
As in the past, Breton refused to recognize that he was interfering with elections in another country. Sitting in his EU office, he demanded that whatever is discussed in the interview should satisfy his own content standards: “As the relevant content is accessible to EU users and being amplified also in our jurisdiction, we cannot exclude potential spillovers in the EU.” Breton expressly warned that the censors were watching. Breton wrote of the Musk-Trump interview: “Therefore, we are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political – or societal – events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.” Breton added his perfunctory mantra that free expression is fine, but only if he does not consider it “harmful.”
“This notably means, on one hand, that freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected and, on the other hand, that all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming, which, if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security.”
He then threatened to impose ruinous financial penalties until Musk censored others, including potentially one of two leading presidential candidates in the United States. Musk responded with a defiant message that began with “Bonjour!” He added a vulgar Tropic Thunder reference.
Breton is one of the key figures in an anti-free speech movement that has swept over Europe. It is now using the DSA, as many of us predicted, to force other countries to censor their citizens and even their leaders. It is free speech regulated to the lowest common denominator, the level set by the EU and Breton.
There is a crushing irony. The left has made “foreign interference” with elections a mantra of claiming to be defending democracy. Yet, it applauds EU censors threatening companies that carry an interview with a targeted American politician. It also supports importing such censorship and blacklisting systems to the United States. When you agree with the censorship, it is not viewed as interference, but an intervention.
If citizens want to see where the anti-free speech movement will take us in the United States, they need only to look at Europe where free speech is in a virtual free fall. As I wrote in “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage”:
“The impact of these laws was evident in a poll of German citizens. Only 18 percent of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. Fifty-nine percent of Germans did not even feel free expressing themselves in private among friends. And just 17 percent felt free to express themselves on the internet. The only true success of censorship has been the forced or compelled silence of those with opposing views. That pretense of social harmony is treated as success even though few minds are changed as fewer voices are heard in society.”
Musk may be the only individual with sufficient money and commitment to stand up to the EU and the global censors. That is precisely why Musk is being targeted by so many in the media, academia, and government. It is also why many of us support X and its struggle against the EU and Breton.
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