The Alliance Defending Freedom International has warned that free speech in Europe is facing its gravest threat since the days of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
ADF executive director of Christian advocacy group, Paul Coleman, claims that since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the first election of Donald Trump, the European political establishment has refused to examine its own assumptions and track record in government and has instead concluded that it is the European population that is wrong.
Since then, working under the guise of preventing “hate speech” or “misinformation”, the EU has taken steps to prevent the spread of ideas it doesn’t like.
Coleman said that “misinformation” and “hate speech” were “deliberately vague and subjective terms [that] are rarely, if ever, defined in the legislation that seeks to ban them".
"And I am convinced that the lack of any meaningful definition is a design feature, not a bug," he said.
He warned that the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) represents a real threat to freedom of speech in Europe as it would require online platforms such as Facebook and X to ban any content deemed “illegal" in the EU and in any member state.
Effectively it would mean that whichever country has the most stringent censorship laws in the bloc, could set the policy for the whole EU.
According to Coleman, draconian uses of censorship laws already in place would become more common.
“The case of Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen, one of ADF International’s clients, gives a harrowing example of what censorship under the DSA could look like in practice," he said.
“Six years ago, Päivi posted a picture of a Bible verse and expressed her Christian views on sexuality on X. She was criminally prosecuted for alleged ‘hate speech’ and has been unanimously acquitted in two trials. But the state prosecutor has appealed the case again.
"And shockingly, her case—in which she faces trial for posting online—is now pending before Finland’s Supreme Court.”
Coleman called upon the people of Europe to lobby their elected representatives to raise concerns about censorship when the DSA is reviewed by the European Commission in November.
The Commission will be required to decide whether the DSA will be compatible with the various legal rights granted by the EU Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights.
