by Ben Bartee, PJ Media:
On the morrow, a day that will live in infamy, August 25th, the brutal censorship regime that the EU has been plotting for several months will take full effect.
Dissidents will be silenced. Hate speech will be throttled. Free expression will be choked.
Praise Democracy™!
Long Live Our Values™!
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
One might assume that the corporate state media would be a tad upset at a sprawling new state censorship regime — but they’re not, both because they haven’t done actual journalism for decades and because they know they won’t be targeted. They are the state. They’re the censors, and thus the beneficiaries of their opposition being snuffed out.
Via Reuters (emphasis added):
More than a dozen of the world’s biggest tech companies face unprecedented legal scrutiny, as the European Union’s sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes new rules on content moderation*, user privacy and transparency.
From Friday, a host of internet giants – including Meta’s (META.O) Facebook and Instagram platforms, Apple’s online App Store, and a handful of Google (GOOGL.O) services – will face new obligations in the EU, including preventing harmful content from spreading, banning or limiting certain user-targeting practices, and sharing some internal data with regulators and associated researchers…
The EU is seen as the global leader in tech regulation, with more wide-ranging pieces of legislation – such as the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act – on the way. The bloc’s success in implementing such laws will influence the introduction of similar rules around the world.
(*Content moderation = another of many euphemisms for censorship)
That last line — “the bloc’s success in implementing such laws will influence the introduction of similar rules around the world” — portends poorly for anyone in America who hopes to remain immune from such regimes in the Land of the Free.
The EU, having much less robust protections for speech and without the cultural traditions that underpin them, is the testing ground for such social engineering programs. These initiatives absolutely will end up in the United States, if not at the federal level then in blue jurisdictions first and rippling outward from there.
Take a look around at the corporate state media and try to find even tepid criticism of the new regime. Euronews describes it as a “milestone moment in regulating Internet giants and is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service.” Social cancer Huffpost, itself toxic, calls it “part of the EU’s overhaul of digital rules aimed at reining in the power of online platforms and social media companies and cleaning up toxic content.”
