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August 13, 2024 - 8:00pm
In an interview on X, Elon Musk and Donald Trump engaged in a wide-ranging conversation that stretched for over two hours. The interview, which “[B]etween 7:47 PM and 10:47 PM ET… received 73 million views,” was a triumph for free and open discourse, if not necessarily riveting discourse.
But the Musk-Trump conversation also raised darker concerns of censorship. In the lead-up to the conversation, Thierry Breton, a European Commission official, posted a letter on X consisting of 10 full paragraphs of legal jargon concerning EU law, particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA), warning Musk of his obligation to comply with elements of the law dealing with misinformation.
In reality, the letter was a thinly veiled threat to Musk, complete with reminders that “formal proceedings are already ongoing against X under the DSA, notably linked to the dissemination of illegal content.” Curiously, the letter displays remarkable savvy in social media attention-getting, with Breton now surfing a massive wave of scorn and ridicule — exactly the kind of sentiment that drives post into viral territory.
But the letter also displays a worrying willingness by the EU — a body that, at least in the past, was a global champion of the right to free expression — to wade into murky waters. While the EU no doubt sees this action as a positive step in its role as the backbone of the emerging global information police force, others will surely see it as a case of astonishing government overreach. Worse still, that the EU should threaten Musk for interviewing a presidential candidate shows a desire to stifle debate and hints at institutional partisanship.
On its face, Breton’s letter is about ensuring compliance with European law. In reality, the letter represents a broader trend of state influence over digital platforms. The fact that “recent events in the United Kingdom” is referenced in the first sentence — before even mentioning the actual interview in question — reveals the power dynamic at work. Those recent events in the UK are the riots that swept the nation in the wake of the killing of three children — and the equally sweeping crackdown by the British authorities on people who expressed ideas or opinions found objectionable by the police. As the UK’s official government account warned just days before the Musk interview: “Think before you post.”
The effort to control information is not, in itself, illegitimate. While a broad interpretation of the constitutional right of freedom of speech has been enshrined by two centuries of American case law, the same is not true in Europe, where there is a markedly different stance on the issue. The real problem in this case, however, is the appearance that laws like the DSA are being used in service of influencing an election.
This was underlined in the US when a reporter at the Washington Post echoed the Breton line by asking Biden’s press secretary if the administration planned to “intervene” in the Musk-Trump interview. As with Breton’s letter, the Post reporter’s rationalisation was that there could be “misinformation” spread by the interview. The fact that the press secretary “welcomed” the reporter’s concern, instead of reminding him that doing so would be a grave violation of electoral norms, underscores the point.
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SubscribeAuthoritarian world government on its way. Boy, are these guys afraid of our conservative and libertarian movement. Or maybe they’re just short of things to do, sad bureaucrats. You gotta go to the Ukraine to see any activity in Europe nowadays.
A great descriptor, like Axis of Evil which helped to encapsulate malignant forces for a previous generation.
Along with Two Tier Keir, these are important identifiers. The left has for too long sought to monopolise the conversation with their terminology: fascist, far-right, and the latest…weird.
Time to shift the conversational ground, which is the very thing Breton et al are seeking to stifle.
Speaking about the British riots over the death of three little girls, the author then claims that the “crackdown by the British authorities on people who expressed ideas or opinions found objectionable by the police.” Ideas? Opinions? They were riots with the destruction of property and injured police. That is a ridiculous sentence. Using that logic, the BLM riots in the US were just an expression of ideas and opinions. The riots were just hooligans mindlessly destroying everything and fighting with each other. Riots are not ideas.
I think author is referring to the arrests subsequent to the riots – for offences such as posting misinformation and / or incitements.
Rather than the riots themselves.
(Stating the obvious somewhat)
Free speech is an existential threat to the technocrats and regime media information gatekeepers. They see the shifting tides taking place across Europe in recent elections. The information gatekeepers who protect the status quo are becoming more irrelevant every day.
The warning to Musk is actually a warning to us all – if you express opinions they are not approved by the state, you may be subject to state sanctions.
Very well said.
The similarities between this form of speech censorship and that enacted by Stalinist Russia is striking – and very concerning. The fact that they use the “protection of democracy” as their justification is beyond belief. It is truly Orwellian and so plain to see for anyone who cares to open their eyes.
“It’s Europe’s latest quarrel with Musk, who last week clashed with British politicians who accused him of inciting real world violence during far-right riots.
But this time, the EU’s reputation as the world’s digital regulator is at stake.”
This is an extract from this Politico article on the Breton-Musk faceoff: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-elon-musk-donald-trump-interview-thierry-breton-letter-social-media/
I had no idea the EU had a reputation as the world’s digital regulator. I thought its reputation in all things digital was to puff itself up, trying to act like the big guy but then belching out stuff like the GDPR, a piece of legislation with a number of serious faults and the implementation of which has led to a patchwork of different practices across the bloc.
Something which I won’t dispute is the EU’s reputation as an arrogant, patronising bureaucratic cabal with almost zero strategic thinking capability. I have frying pans that are better strategists.
GDPR cost British businesses £8billion – with no discernable benefit at all. When was the last time you ‘managed your preferences’. Never, probably.
The Bretons of this world fear the likes of Musk and Trump. Rather than seeing and engaging with them as artefacts of democratic society, they understand them as aberations that threaten their positions of privilege and unwarranted authority, who need to be eliminated at all costs. It is far easier to paint them as dangerous demigods and enemies of ‘democracy’ than to make the effort to engage with the concerns they raise. Breton is what the Global Left’s propoganda machinery of their dictatorial fantacy looks like. A kind of hyperliberal Goebbels for the 21st century, if you will. What’s astonishing is how little self-awareness these would-be tyrants have – they’re truly scary.
A great term, which identifies a problem we’re faced with, much like the Axis of Evil did for a previous generation. These terms are important in helping to wrest back the discourse which progressives have sought to dominate for far too long.
“Two Tier Censorship” has a ring about it ….
As anyone keeping up with this already knows the EU Commissioners have slapped down official.
That aside though a remarkable headline from UnHerd – seemingly forgetting about censorship in China, Iran, Russia, N Korea etc. We’ll have another Article shortly no doubt about how the West’s values are being decayed missing the irony of how silly headlines like this contribute to exactly that.
Why do you worship these mediocre bureaucrats so much JW? You should spend some time in Brussels. Then you might understand that the EU is really just another parasite class racket.
Er, Breton is a Commissioner, not an “official”.
While UK on free speech might be currently even worse, Brexit was a great opportunity to cast away the 4th Reich.
It’s inconceivable that Breton would have sent a similar letter in advance of a Musk interview of Harris. Which tells us all we need to know about this matter.
You Europeans are getting kinda scary.
Please keep in mind that if y’all decide to start a shooting war again, we (aka Yanks) will not be joining in this time.
I wonder what has made the EU set up a five state trial of a vaccine app to check whether you are vaccinated for whatever they want you to be vaccinated against. Seems that if you are unvaccinated, say goodbye to overseas travel. Due for roll out in 2026
The powers-that-be were happy to ignore social media as long as they were confident that controlling the MSM was sufficient to control the narrative. Clearly it isn’t any longer so decades of investment of one kind or another, including time, are at risk of being undone. Hence the need to crush, if they can’t control, the new media.
And in other news, Sir Mark Rowley of the Met has announced his intention to seek extradition of posters in the US for inciting riot. This has been greeted with widespread hilarity amongst the citizens of our former colonies.
Freedom of speech is now virtually extinct in the West. The next victim will be freedom of thought.