“We are the free world now.” Those words from Raphael Glucksmann, a French socialist member of the European Parliament, sparked outrage among Europeans after the Trump administration did what no previous administration has ever done: stand up to Europe to defend free speech.
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio banned five figures closely associated with European censorship efforts from traveling to the US. This includes Thierry Breton, the former European Union Commissioner responsible for digital policy.
In a post on X, Rubio said the US “will no longer tolerate these blatant acts of extraterritorial censorship” and will target “leading figures in the global censorship industrial complex from entering the United States.”
Breton achieved infamy as one of the architects of the EU’s massive censorship system, which is now globalized. Armed with the notorious Digital Service Act, Breton and others threatened American companies and officials that they would have to bow to European free speech standards. After Breton learned that Musk planned to interview Trump before the last presidential election, he even warned the X owner that he would be “monitored” and could be subject to EU fines.
Socialist Glucksmann is now furious at “this scandalous sanction against Thierry Breton”.
“We are Europeans,” he declared. “We must defend our laws, our principles, our interests.” In other words, this is a war over whether Europe or the US Constitution will dictate the domain of free speech for American companies and citizens.
Breton and his colleagues are finally being treated for what they are: a clear and present danger to the “indispensable right” that defines all Americans.
The EU has been enlisted by US anti-free speech figures to force companies like X and Facebook to restore censorship of Americans. After Musk bought Twitter with a pledge to restore free speech protections, Hillary Clinton asked European officials to force him to censor under Europe’s Digital Services Act.
Nina Jankowicz, the former head of Biden’s infamous Disinformation Governing Council, appeared before the European Parliament. She called on the 27 EU countries to fight against the US, which she described as a global threat.
The EU enthusiastically accepted the challenge. This year, I spoke in Berlin at the World Forum, which promoted the slogan “A New World Order with European Values”. Bill and Hillary Clinton and other Americans applauded the European efforts.
The Digital Services Act prohibits speech that is viewed as “disinformation” or “incitement”. When passed over the condemnations of many of us in the free speech community, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager celebrated by declaring that “it is no longer a slogan – that what is illegal offline should be seen and treated as illegal online. Now it is a real thing. Democracy is back.”
It really is a “real thing”. In my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the challenges facing our republic in the 21st century, including the EU and its model of transnational governance. Many on the left advocate the erosion of national laws and values in favor of standards set by global experts and elites.
This group of American facilitators has been increasingly vocal in Europe. In particular, ABC host Jimmy Kimmel gave a speech on Christmas Eve in the UK denouncing the US as a global threat. He declared that “from the perspective of fascism, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming here.”
It was crushingly ironic. Many of us have been writing for years about how free speech has been gutted in the UK, where people are being prosecuted for “toxic ideologies” and an ever-longer list of unacceptable political views.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett issued a warning this week about the collapse of free speech in the UK. Yet there a comedian, who is paid millions and attacks Trump every night, complained about the threat to free speech in the US.
Both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary Rubio gave major speeches warning the EU about its effort to export censorship systems, particularly targeting American citizens and companies. After years of encouragement and encouragement from the Obama and Biden administrations, the US government is finally in this fight.
This is why Europe is standing up, denouncing the move to ban these officials as an attack on its own sovereignty. In other words, an effort to defend our own values of freedom of expression is a threat to the proclaimed “New World Order with European Values”.
I actually don’t like travel bans. I prefer these figures to come to this country and face free speech advocates. However, despite our calls for Congress to step into this fight, it has done nothing because of opposition from Democratic members. We cannot wait for the EU to weaponize and globalize censorship.
Glucksmann is right about one thing. This is a battle for who today can rightly be called the “free world.” In the US, we continue to cling to the strange notion that the free world is supposed to be based on… well, freedom.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution” on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
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