Well, this is rich.
The European Union (EU) has officially responded to the United States’s sanctioning of five foreign operatives who colluded with Big Tech to censor Americans, and, boy, it is something else. After condemning the U.S. for taking such action, the EU went on to wax poetically about how “freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe” and woefully proclaim how they thought that was a “shared core value” with the United States.
They seem super disappointed in the US, don’t they?
As RedState reported on Tuesday, the Trump administration placed sanctions on five foreigners, mostly Europeans, who worked alongside the Biden administration and U.S.-based NGOs to place pressure on tech companies to stifle free speech.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in announcing the sanctions, said the actions of the five created “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” and called the coordinated effort the “global censorship-industrial complex.” The five guilty parties are now barred from entering the United States, and those who might currently be here can be immediately expelled by the State Department.
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Amongst the five who were sanctioned are a former European Union commissioner and leaders of European-based non-governmental organizations with mission statements of fighting “digital hate.” They are accused of using European censorship laws and taxpayer-funded NGOs to pressure U.S. tech platforms into silencing lawful American speech, including threatening X with enforcement action ahead of a Trump–Musk livestream, pushing “deplatforming” lists of American citizens, and blacklisting U.S. media outlets as “disinformation.”
Let’s take a look at the full statement released Wednesday by the EU:
The European Commission strongly condemns the U.S. decision to impose travel restrictions on five European individuals, including former European Commissioner Thierry Breton.
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right in Europe and a shared core value with the United States across the democratic world.
The EU is an open, rules-based single market, with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments.
Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair, and level playing field for all companies, applied fairly and without discrimination.
We have requested clarifications from the U.S. authorities and remain engaged.
If needed, we will respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures.
Do these people even listen to themselves? Europeans, as demonstrated by the EU’s wild take here, seem to be the only ones who think they cherish free speech. The rest of us know different.
They were warned. Vice President JD Vance grabbed headlines around the world back in February, just weeks after Inauguration Day, when he gave a speech in Germany at the annual Munich Security Conference and took Europe to task for their increasingly bad record on freedom of expression.
In his speech, Vance called out “EU commissars” who “warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest,” and specifically targeted Sweden for jailing a Christian activist who burned a Koran and the United Kingdom for convicting a pro-life activist for praying in her head outside an abortion clinic.
Vance put European leaders on notice in that speech, telling them, “In Washington, there’s a new sheriff in town.” And, indeed, there is – gone (for now, at least) are the days when the actions of our “allies” go unquestioned. We take the First Amendment very seriously around these parts, and the EU would do well to remember that when thinking about messing with it.
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