U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s accusations of censorship have angered Europeans. Many Americans, however, believe he is right—even though the White House itself restricts free speech.
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Trump’s Own Assault on the Press
More free speech would benefit Europe, agrees Jacob Mchangama. “Europe sees free expression too much as a threat to democracy rather than as its most fundamental liberty,” says the Danish legal scholar, who leads the independent think tank The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration is a poor advocate for free speech because it has waged its own war on the media,” he adds.
Trump has sued media outlets, his new FCC chairman has launched investigations into TV and radio stations, and the White House has barred the Associated Press from presidential briefings. Mchangama believes these actions will fail in court.
Meanwhile, European leaders are cracking down too—French President Emmanuel Macron has pursued legal action against those portraying him as Hitler, and he has banned more organizations than any other Fifth Republic leader. In Germany, thousands of internet users face investigations each year.
[ . . . ]The Pressure Cooker Theory
European countries impose stricter speech laws due to their histories—Germany and France because of Nazism and the Holocaust, Switzerland due to 19th-century religious conflicts. Today, their primary concern is the radicalization of Islamists online.
However, Mchangama warns that censorship is not an effective way to protect democracy. In the Netherlands, right-wing populist Geert Wilders faced multiple trials but is now the leader of the country’s largest party. In Germany, the AfD is polling higher than ever. “Research suggests that repression fuels extremism,” he says. “We call it the pressure cooker theory: The more the state cracks down, the easier it becomes for extremists to justify violence.”
During the Cold War, the U.S. and Europe had similar free speech priorities, united in their mission to spread it beyond the Iron Curtain. But since Trump’s 2016 election and the rise of social media, fears of foreign interference in elections have grown. “That’s when elite panic set in, and democratic leaders began exaggerating the threat of online disinformation,” Mchangama explains. This angered Trump, but he responded in the wrong way.
Also published at Süddeutsche Zeitung
Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).