Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, of European Social Media Censorship
Our Op-Ed in The NY Post: Unlike things that happen in Vegas, European social media censorship doesn’t stay in Europe
The detention of Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, by French police is a cautionary tale for how European bureaucratic internet control mechanisms can affect platforms used by millions of Americans.
Kemberlee and I write about it in an Op-Ed in The NY Post, Arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France should scare Americans worried about free speech:
The famous Las Vegas tourism slogan asserts that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
But when it comes to European social media censorship, what happens in Europe doesn’t stay in Europe. Americans should be worried.
The case of Pavel Durov highlights the problem.
The co-founder of social media giant Telegram was detained upon his arrival in France last Saturday.
Durov is being investigated for refusal to cooperate with authorities in restricting the content being posted to Telegram and potentially is being held responsible for the alleged criminal use of the platform, or at least that’s the gist of France’s argument.
No big deal, you say. What does that have to do with us, you ask.
Everything.
The result is the chilling of free speech on a platform used by millions of Americans.
French investigators were quick to assure the public that this was most certainly not a political detention, which means it most certainly was.
Durov is a seasoned veteran in the fight to protect free speech and association.
Just over a decade ago, Durov was given a nasty ultimatum by the Russian government to hand over user data to his version of Facebook or hand over rights to the company and leave the country. Durov chose to leave.
The message was simple — fork over the data of private citizens or face political persecution. We expect this from the Russians, and sadly now the Europeans.
In the US, Telegram is home to many of those who were summarily deplatformed during the massive social media purges during the COVID years and especially following January 6, simply for questioning the status quo. It serves as an outlet for our own censored citizens.
France’s interference with Telegram is not the first European foray into regulating American speech. The EU has been on a mission for years to use its regulations to control American social media and other tech platforms.
The UK’s disturbing crackdown on online memes reached across the pond and into our own online speech, with threats to extradite Americans.
X owner Elon Musk has dealt with similar threats by foreign entities demanding he crack down on his platform, or else.
And it’s no surprise that X is in the crosshairs since it is now the number one platform for political speech in this election season.
What is happening in Europe to restrict online free speech already has reached our shores.
We can expect that European-style censorship will find a welcoming audience in the DC swamp.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor COVID-19 content, “including humor and satire,” and that they stifled The New York Post’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop due to meddling from the FBI.
For all the fun, memes, and doom scrolling, the major social media platforms do remain magnets for the worst of the worst elements; possibly criminals, terrorists, and traffickers.
But criminals plan and commit crimes using the telephone, too, and governments around the world aren’t locking up the phone companies.
The message of Durov’s detention is simple — hand over the data of the private citizenry, monitor and police their free speech, or face political persecution.
We cannot allow our long-standing freedom of speech and assembly to become subject to European laws or lawmakers. And certainly not to the whims of globalists at the United Nations or in Davos.
Durov is a walking target for refusing to capitulate to the surveillance state. But like Trump famously said, “In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you.”
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Comments
When I ordered one amendment they sent me two. They explained that the second one ensures that the first one is respected.
I think y’all understand what I mean. The people that wrote the amendments damned sure did.
When do you plan to use that second one?
That is the type of discussion that Telegram was built for.
When the damn Europeans try to come for me. That’s when I will use the second one. And I guarantee you, it won’t be pretty.
(Oops, can I be arrested and extradited to a foreign country for saying that? It is kind of a threat. But there you go and here we are.)
Brilliant. We need to tell the Euro fascists to pound cheese, sauerkraut, fish and chips etc.
We kept those good things. They can keep their fascism and communism.
Compelling. You’ve totally convinced me. What do we do now?
Social media here is already censoring us, 1st Amendment or not.
The elite are determined to make us their serfs.
European commie ideas would not even have a chance affecting Americans with a pro-American government in place. The democrats are commies, themselves, and are pushing for the exact same sort of authoritarian controls of people (over EVERYTHING, not just speech). With Trump in office, for example, Eurotrash commie scumbags would be told to go pound sand with their Acts of War against America – which is exactly what their anti-speech idiocy is, when they try to apply it to Americans and American business. The Eurotrash scumbags are just the Iranian lunatics of the 21st century, putting fatwahs out on anyone who dares utter the truth about any of the insane concepts the Eurotrash are trying to push on the world.
As I said, we have the exact same problem, HERE, with our own commie Democrat scum.
The Democrat (Marxist) regime could easily import the European laws here by simply claiming that fascistic European laws were enforceable here and having one of our many Stasi-like federal agencies (FBI, DHS) start rounding up and extraditing Americans. Such action would be incompatible with our 1st Amendment, but since when has that stopped Democrats?
Such action would be incompatible with the entirety of our Constitution.
But since when has that stopped the Democrats?
with a pro-American government in place
THIS.
European commie ideas have been in America for over 150 years. It’s periodically reinforced with new European commie ideas that come over. That’s part of free speech too; American commies can read what their European brethren spit up.
This is why we need a strong 1A here: exactly so that each new American generation recognizes European commie ideas, and tells the commies to go pound sand.
Trump should make D-Day II a reality…storm Great Britain followed by continental Europe, and liberate them again with a caveat.
America stays in charge.
Again?;?
Oh, God, no! They are all in debt to each other. The Euro has been a disaster to the poorer Mediterranean countries, which simply have never been strong enough to support the Euro. Travellers all knew Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece were the places to go if you didn’t have any money. Not anymore. The EU has had to bail out the poorer countries on more than one occassion. Most of that money came from Germany, though some from France. But they stand no chance of being paid back. It’s a mess. Let them drive each other into bankruptcy. There’s no reason for us to get involved.
Has the EU banned 1984 yet?
It will be memory holed.
The only cure for European laws and regulation requiring censorship is competing American laws and regulations requiring free speech in t he public square.
Freedom of association conflicts with free public speech.
How so? Freedom of speech does not imply a requirement to listen. On social media, you can block those who say things you find offensive. Freedom of speech means the offensive user can use the platform, it doesn’t mean anyone must pay him any attention. And their presence doesn’t prevent anyone of opposite mind from gathering solely with other such minds, so freedom of association is similarly protected. The platforms aren’t exclusive to one type of thought or another. An ideal free speech platform would have the following warning in its terms of service: Complaints about the opinions of other users will not be entertained.
Which reminds me, the First Amendment was created to protect offensive speech. Speech to which nobody objects doesn’t require protection, so obviously the amendment’s only purpose is the protection of that speech which is threatened with silencing.
It’s the platform’s freedom of association, not the users’. It’s what the US appealed to to get Zuck to censor stuff. “You don’t want to live in a bad neighborhood” freedom of association.
And, as you’ve no doubt by now read, is what the courts are now saying our government can’t do. Government cannot violate the 1A rights of citizens by pressuring platforms under the table.
Is Meta a publisher, or not a publisher?
They’re a publisher when they want to control content.
They’re not a publisher when they need the protections of Section 230.
They’ve been playing both sides of the fence for years.
The troll is exposing itself to the dawn
Gotta be careful there, best consider what happened to Tom, Bert, and William
You need to explain your statement better. You do so down below, when you say that the platform’s “freedom of association” morphed into “a safe neighborhood”, which then impacted free speech. Note that there is not a direct cause and effect, but rather steps to get there. Anyway, I think this is what you meant.
I’ve been talking to people about the EULA agreements and other spyware since the early 2000’s when a friend showed me the cookies on my computer. And yes I do know cookies are “harmless” little bits of code supposedly.
I’m not a programmer nor do I understand the intricacies of programming, but I do understand that if we would elect America first politicians, hold their feet to the fire to make it illegal to collect so much data then maybe there’s a chance to maintain some freedom.
But I have my doubts.
It would be nice to at least show an interest.
It would be nice if users showed an interest.
Kind of like if the electorate showed an interest in protecting our Constitutionally protected freedoms.
True. Americans have become so passive, I hardly recognize them.
What must be mentioned is that this pernicious, evil and Orwellian phenomenon of obnoxiously totalitarian prosecutions and censorship of individuals and platforms in formerly robust democracies isn’t merely a consequence of cancerous, neo-communist leftism and anti-corporate agitprop — although it certainly is that — but, it is also a manifestation of Islamofascists’/Muslim supremacists’ increasing political clout and brazen antics, in alliance with cowed, emasculated and meek useful idiot, European, Canadian and Australian leftist dhimmis, and, American Dhimmi-crats.
The red-green alliance is as dangerous an ideological and political coalition as has ever been conceived. This is fairly and truly characterized as an “axis of evil.”
BTW, the NY Post is derided by leftists and Dhimmi-crats as an allegedly unserious, “tabloid” publication, but, its practice of publishing actual dogged and robust journalism and opinion pieces that speak truth to power put the supposedly lofty, former newspapers turned Pravda propaganda outlets, WaPo and the NY Times, to total shame.
Post columnists deserve multiple Pulitzer prizes for their reporting on the Biden laptop suppression story, Wuhan virus censorship, Russian collusion hoax, and, other stories, but, we know that ideological bias will keep the paper from reaping due recognition from the leftist media establishment shills/lapdogs/trained seals/propagandists.
I do not understand how The New York Times maintains its presstige. This is the paper that supported Stalin in the 30s, and denied the Ukrainian famine, then supported Alger Hiss in the 40s, and then Castro in the 50s. Today, it simply lies its head off with Russian hoaxes, J6 insurgencies (or Battle of the Cell Phones as some call it), and any other political fantasies that come along. The New York Times is a joke. You siimply cannot take their political reporting seriously.
I agree. The Times’s history of dishonesty, perfidy and moral bankruptcy — including Walter Duranty and his whitewashing of Stalin’s crimes, as you reference — is long and well-documented.
But, for many New York and east coast Dhimmi-crats, this wretched publication (along with the similarly vile propaganda rag, Wapo) remains the Party’s secular bible.
Trump should announce that if he is elected, Europe gets a choice:
Either give up these attempts to crack down on free speech, or the US withdraws from Nato, and you can defend yourselves against the nefarious Asian actors on your own Nickle, if you can defend yourselves at all.
I like that idea. France needs a reminder that freedom comes with a cost.
If Nato nations are threatening us, why should we pay to protect them?
We did some of this ourselves during the Cold War, when it was unthinkable that we should lose to the Soviets. We canoodled with various unsavory actors around the world because those actors were “anti-Soviet”.
Those days are over.
The U.S. should say today, “any friend or ally of ours who violates the basic human rights of speech, expression and faith of its citizens is no longer our friend or ally. We shall step away from you, and you can make your own way in the world.”
And then mean it.
Don’t get me wrong: I generally like Europe and Europeans. I’d like to see a free, stable, and prosperous Europe. That would be good for the world. But if the EU, and the European states, wish to go down the road to their multi-national statism and the ‘great reset’, that’s on them, and they can live with the consequences without American support or defense.
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Although the intentions are good, your scenario demands that allies adopt our values. And, really, their internal matters are not our business. Christopher Caldwell wrote that the US pressured Ireland to legalize abortions. What in the world does that have to do with US foreign policy? How about flying the Pride Flag over our Embassy in Kabul? Yeah, that worked out well. Other people have their own values, their own ideals. We can teach by example, not pressure.
And don’t forget — before that, we canoodled with the Soviets themselves, because they were “anti-Nazi.”
And apparently the only reason Durov was there in the first place was because MACRON INVITED HIM to a dinner and have a discussion. Instead he was arrested the second he stepped off his plane.
I hope every other company that does business in France has taken notes and is acting accordingly.
That’s disgraceful. Macron is acting like a tinpot dictator, with that dishonest and despotic stunt.
What muddies this whole affair is that Durov holds French citizenship. So when you write “European social media censorship doesn’t stay in Europe,” to what extent is that accurate?
Sure, lots of US citizens use Telegram, just as lots of global citizens use X. But we saw in an article yesterday (Harley Davidson) the sort of crap that can happen when an “American” company gets run by a non-American. And Smith & Wesson. And Anheuser-Busch.
Is it time to bite the bullet and suggest that companies crucial to American rights be run by Americans? How racist. I like it already.
I was stunned to read a woke quote from the CEO of Coca-Cola a couple of years ago … and then find out the guy is a Brit. God save the Queen. But not over here.
Yes. And also, Coke sucks.
Michelin USA employees need to revolt.
Europeans are fundamentally different from us. The fiercest of them, and maybe the most stubborn, left behind what little they had to seek greater opportunities here. They were the risk takers, the independent ones. The rest stayed, touching their caps when an aristocrat passed, willingly accepting their station in the natural order of things. Of course they are willing to accept restrictions on what they can read, what they can say publicly. They will mumble among themselves, maybe explode in frustration every once in a while, but mainly they will accept what is dictated to them. Because the world is a scary place, and you gotta grab safety where you can find it.
I’ve been disturbed for some time by the encroachment of European ideas into the United States psyche. I am convinced, for example, that socialism is a clear reaction to an aristocracy. So why has socialism suddenly caught on here??? Greed, I suppose. Gen Xers, brought up in comparative luxury which they can’t just walk out of college and replicate, are jealous of the benefits given European workers, and they want those benefits for themselves. They are convinced there is no down side to the European experience. All that greener grass across the Atlantic surely indicates the presence of a utopia. Oh sure! Only children believe in fairy tales.
European ideas are dangerous to our way of life. They do not prize liberty as we do. Or perhaps I should say as we did.
Gen X (’65-’80) is in general more libertarian, center/right populist than other generations. Far more independent and self reliant as a cohort. Gen X childhood was the bad economic period of the stagflation ’70s and high inflation, high interest rates into the early ’80s overlapping the last decades of the cold war.
Gen X ain’t the issue. Not for nothing but VP Harris (’64) is a boomer. The age breakdown for 2020:
18-29 voted 60% Biden/36% DJT
30-44 voted 52% Biden/46% DJT
45-64 voted 49% Biden/50% DJT
65+ voted 45% Biden/52% DJT
These # compiled by Roper Center for Public Research.
It’s the folks after Gen X that are embracing leftist wokiesta ideas.
I may have referenced the wrong generation. I meant the 18-29 year olds.
Yup. My German forebears came to the U.S to be Americans. Not “German-Americans.” They took to heart what Teddy Roosevelt said.
As the US was settled voluntary by European rebels, Australia was settled involuntarily by European rebels. They also had the “self-reliance” culture. But theirs is now showing the same anemia as ours is — somewhat moreso, as they retained the cultural connections to European royalty that we severed.
I was in Europe this past May. Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy. I found the people we interacted with to be just like us. Hard working,
Intelligent, raising families and quietly bitching about their governments policies. The most interesting aspect was their amusement at the USA having a President who was obviously in mental decline. That was their number one topic they wanted to discuss. And not one person had anything good to say about the EU politicians. They feel trapped in their own countries by politicians that are unraveling all the progress since 1945. FKH
Interesting. The Swiss, wisely in my view, did not fully join the EU. They are as independent as we are. I’ve read about the farmers revolts in Holland, of course. Astounding that Holland is the SECOND LARGEST food exporter after the US. But the farming techniques that make that possible are under attack by EU conservationists. Glad to hear Europeans were laughing at Biden. US liberals deserve to be humiliated. We have to stop sending people to Davos and any other European think tank. Those meetings just confuse our intellectuals, who come back thinking they’re European. I was on a cruise in 2016 that included lots of Brits. At that time, they all wanted to hear about Trump, and I was happy to oblige.
Two things jump out.
First, Professor Jacobson explicitly says that Europe and Russia are different and distinct. Exactly what Russian super patriots and Russian believers in Russian exceptional ism and Slavic leadership have said for generations. Great!
Second, he ignores the facts that a) the EU, France and Europe generally are not the United States; b) freedom of speech is a secondary or possibly tertiary consideration for many Europeans; and c) Europe has the right to exercise power in its geographic domain and as far abroad as it possibly can. Any red-blooded Amurican would agree with that if it were Amurica doing what France is doing.
When I learned… what, 30 years ago?… that it was a literal CRIME in Germany to express doubt in the official story of the Holocaust, I realized that Europe’s idea of “human rights” were no better than the UN’s.
uhhh
its already here
how many “operation choke points” have to occur ..be it with weapons or speech ( which the dems consider the same)
for the american people to start by defunding the governments !!!???
In America we have the 1st and 2nd Amendments. Europe does not. In America our inalienable Rights are placed separate from and superior to government. In Europe they are not. America is unique in the world that way.
The European nations give the impression of having freedom speech, but it isn’t really true. If their government should take an adverse interest in their speech, they have no recourse to anything like our Bill or Rights. All they can do is to make a moral case – which their government might, or might not, bother to care about.
Yes, our Rights in America are frequently abused. But there is a huge difference between being abused versus nonexistent.
no not really
thats why the term “paper tiger” exists
In theory, a government cannot interfere with rights “granted by God.”
In practice, they imprison or shoot you.
Durov shows you have to be careful where you travel. Don’t get too cocky.
Durov’s fate will probably be decided by France’s next Presidential Election, which will be 2 years from now.
I won’t even drive over the California border, much less visit Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, or Europe..
Though that may change someday, depending on how the recent court ruling about CA having to honor out-of-state CCW licenses pans out.
If the UK police commissioner or some EU person comes to the US to arrest a US resident for free speech, the US government should arrest that person and charge them with attempting to deny a US resident a constitutional right and attempting to kidnap a US resident. A day or two in a US jail and prosecution should cure that problem.
Moral of the story:
If a sh*tlib like Macron asks you over for dinner, tell them to get f*cked.
…said the fly to the spider!
As much as we have in common with Europe, there is a growing gap between us. They are moving to a more socialistic society and are clamping down on any form of free speech that is not acceptable to the government. Ukraine is a total dictatorship and France is a nest of screwed-up parties that never agree on anything. NATO is nothing but a subsidy for this failing attempt at self-governance. Trump is the man to kick ass and tell them to shape up or we ship out.
Oh, let’s just ship out! My family lived in northern Italy in the 50s and I went to Italian schools. I learned to read and write in Italian before I could in English. There have always been huge differences between the old countries and ourselves. Any country that had or still has an aristocracy is fundamentally different from the US. Important things flow from the top down. This is reinforced by Catholicism in the Latin countries. The US was founded on the idea of power flowing from the bottom up. That is a principle we need to fight for.
What has been going on in Europe for a very long time has migrated to the United States. The first thing to do is stop thinking that Europe is a democracy, it is not. They control their citizens very well here. Media is practically non-existent. The place I live, every evening they have people who make reports and read what they are handed.
Most who live here think the United States is a back water hovel and that we do not have any culture. What they mean by that is the US is not suppressed in expressing their views and though there are those who in the US express their disgust of law enforcement, do not dare attempting that here where I live. They will throw you in jail and charge you with a criminal offense for insulting law enforcement.
Of course even our own State Department and intelligence agencies are complicit in supporting Europe in quelching any dissent, let alone not have the same narrative as is desired by those in the position of power. Example; look what Germany is trying to do to the political party AfD. The US State Department as well as the US intelligence agencies are in support of Germany banning them.
If I may interject a recommendation to get a clearer understanding of how the US State Department and those three letter agencies operate, check out the Tucker Carlson interview with Mark Benz.