Reason: Free Speech Coalition Slaps Censorious E.U. Commissioner Who Threatened Elon Musk

By J.D. Tuccille

Earlier this month, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton raised eyebrows when he publicly warned Elon Musk to respect the E.U.’s censorship laws during a then-pending interview with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Even for the E.U., which has been slipping not-so-slowly towards soft totalitarianism, the attempt to extend E.U. jurisdiction to North America was a high water mark for presumption. Now a coalition of civil libertarians is calling Breton out for his disregard for freedom of speech.

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You Can’t Censor the World

“We are particularly concerned by your attempt to use the DSA to stifle freedom of expression beyond the European Union because of what you call ‘spillovers,'” a coalition of organizations and individuals responded to Breton this week. “Warning an online platform that streaming an interview with one of the two key candidates in the United States presidential election may be incompatible with an online safety law is more characteristic of an autocratic nation than a democracy.”

While Breton inserted a few platitudes in his threatening missive to Musk about “freedom of expression and of information,” the civil libertarians weren’t impressed. They dismissed his “abstract references to ensuring freedom of expression” as “not sufficient to guarantee freedom of expression” and cautioned that his “loose paraphrase of the carefully crafted language of the DSA risks casting a long shadow upon free expression and exceeding the authority given to you.”

The letter was signed by The Future of Free Speech, TechFreedom, Insitute H21, The Copia Institute, Justitia, Adam Smith Institute, Center for Political Studies, Istituto Bruno Leoni, and individuals including former ACLU President Nadine Strossen. The signers are based in the European Union, the U.K., and the U.S., reflecting shared concerns by people already under the rule of Brussels, and those over whom the E.U. seeks to extend its reach. The inclusion of European organizations is important, since they may get a hearing from national governments and E.U. parliamentarians who have some say in Brussels.