Europe is censoring Americans | The EU’s Digital Services Act

Описание: The Digital Services Act (DSA), a European online censorship law, poses a major threat to American free speech. The DSA enables unelected bureaucrats in Brussels to control online speech across the globe. That should concern every American who values free speech.

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The Digital Services Act (DSA) is one of the world's most dangerous online censorship regimes.
The DSA gives the European Union the power to enforce "content moderation" on very large online platforms and search engines with over 45 million users per month - this includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X, which can be fined up to 6% of their global annual revenue every time they don't censor speech deemed "illegal." Most of its provisions came into force in February 2024.
The European Commission claims it ensures "legal certainty," "greater democratic control," and "mitigation of systemic risks" - but in reality it is a censorship regime antithetical to democracy.
Platforms must proactively assess and mitigate risks related to "gender-based violence," "hate speech," and other vague harms, leading to sweeping algorithmic control and take-down orders for basically any speech those in power don't like.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) defines "illegal content" extremely broadly - enabling global censorship at the lower common denominator.
The DSA requires platforms to remove "illegal content," defined as anything not in compliance with EU or Member State law at any time, now or in the future. This creates a "lowest common denominator" effect for censorship across the EU, effectively exporting the most restrictive laws across all of Europe and beyond.
Allowing "illegal content" to be determined by one country's vague or overbroad law pits the DSA against international law requiring precision and necessity in speech restrictions.
For over six years, Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen has been prosecuted in Finland for a Bible verse tweet under the country's "hate speech" law. This could be the reality across Europe under the DSA.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) creates a vast censorship infrastructure with powerful enforcement tools.
The DSA establishes a censorship industrial complex with outsourced content flaggers, national coordinators, regulators, and the European Commission at the helm. Content is policed by "trusted flaggers," including NGOs, private entities, and possibly Europol, the law enforcement agency of the EU. Platforms face enormous fines and even EU-wide suspension. Individuals can be suspended if they "persistently" post "illegal content." Platforms must report users to police if flagged content is suspected to involve threats to safety - opening the door to criminal prosecution under national "hate speech" laws even for peaceful expression that involves no such threat.
In practice, platforms are incentivized to over-censor, facing no penalty for unjust takedowns and massive fines for failing to censor.
Individuals will be increasingly motivated to self-censor out of fear of the repercussions of the DSA.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) has serious implications for free speech in the United States.
In addition to its censorial impact across Europe, the DSA has clear extraterritorial impact as it applies to any platform accessed within the EU, regardless of where it is based. Further, platforms may adjust global moderation rules to avoid EU penalties, setting de facto global censorship standards.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee says, "Though nominally applicable to only EU speech, the DSA ... may limit or restrict Americans' constitutionally protected speech."
Blocking content from reaching the EU's 500 million people could silence entire perspectives in global debate. Consider the chilling near-censorship of President Trump. Last summer, ahead of a scheduled interview of Trump on X by Elon Musk, the European Commission issues a warning that the discussion could violate DSA content guidelines leading to its censorship in Europe. Though Musk held his ground, the mere fact that unelected EU bureaucrats attempted to block the interview on the basis of an unfounded expectation of "illegal content" speaks volumes about the power they wield - namely, the power to shut an entire continent out of the conversation simply because they don't want a particular message to be heard.

America and Europe are on a free speech collision course, at a magnitude even the boldest of predictions could not have foreseen. Free speech must prevail.
The DSA is irreconcilable with the human right to free speech. For the very survival of free speech online, it must be repealed or substantially reformed.
We must not allow Europe to censor Americans' free speech.