Elon Musk denounces an illegal attempt by Von der Leyen to impose censorship on Twitter

@ElentirENG ES 7·13·2024 · 7:03 0

The owner of Twitter has been revealing attempts to impose political and ideological censorship on social networks for some time.

Elon Musk brings to light the daily censorship that left-wing politicians exercised on Twitter
The scandal of censorship on Facebook by governments without going through Justice

Two European commissioners threaten Twitter with sanctions

Now it is the turn of the European Union. Yesterday, at 11:50 CET, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton threatened to sanction X (formerly known as Twitter), under the strange accusation that it deceives users with its current verified accounts policy, It is public and known to users (anyone has access to it in their account). Breton announced: "we will impose fines & require significant changes."

At 1:25 p.m. Margrethe Vestager, current first vice president of the European Commission, accused Twitter of "transparency" problems, stating that it "blocks access to data for researchers." Which researchers are you referring to? What is the object of the investigation?

Musk reveals the illegal treatment that the European Commission offered to Twitter

At 17:22 CET the surprise came with Elon Musk's response to Vestager: "The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. 𝕏 did not." The message coincides with the censorship practices revealed by Musk in other countries such as United States, Brazil or Australia.

At 18:49 CET, Musk replied to Breton: "We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth." At 7:14 p.m., Breton responded with a contradictory message. First of all he stated: "There has never been — and will never be — any “secret deal”. With anyone." But then he added: "The DSA provides X (and any large platform) with the possibility to offer commitments to settle a case.". What kind of "commitments" and to solve what kind of "cases"?

The increasingly abusive policy of Von der Leyen's commission

For some time now I have been denouncing that the current president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is turning the European Union into a megastate increasingly similar to the former USSR, a megastate increasingly more opaque in its decision-making, with a legislative diarrhea that imposes more and more abusive regulations in all areas of our lives, harming our freedoms and overriding the sovereignty of the member countries.

A censorship incompatible with democratic principles

Let us remember that two years ago New Zealand broke the scandal of government censorship on Twitter without any judicial control, a censorship that some politicians justify in the need to combat "misinformation", but what happens when politicians are the ones who decide the limits of the right to information? Two months ago, Musk uncovered the illegal censorship of the leftist regime of Brazil against the opposition, using mechanisms outside of any judicial control such as the one that Von der Leyen apparently intends to impose.

In a democracy, independent Justice - and not politicians - is the one that must sanction possible abuses of freedom of expression, because otherwise we risk subordinating this fundamental right to the wishes of power political. In recent years we have seen a clear decline in freedom of expression on social networks, a process that has only been reversed on Twitter thanks to the purchase of that network by Elon Musk. It is very alarming to see that more and more politicians are giving in to the temptation to impose censorship for political and ideological reasons, a censorship that is incompatible with democratic principles.

From 'sanitary cordons' to government censorship

It is significant to see that this also happens in the European Union, at the hands of a "grand coalition" formed by the European People's Party, the socialists and Renew Europe, that is, an alliance of centrists and leftists that seek to exclude from the democratic game those who do not share their ideological dogmas. Let us remember that this is what these political groups have been doing in several European countries, imposing "sanitary cordons" on the conservative right that refuses to give in to progressive dogmas.

It seems that now they no longer have access to those "sanitary cordons." Now they also want to impose censorship mechanisms on us, avoiding any judicial protection for those censored. Something very similar to what happens in dictatorships. Are these the "European values" that Von der Leyen and his allies boast about?

Is this the commission that will stop Pedro Sánchez's abuses?

On the other hand, with what credibility does the Popular Party want us to believe that the European Commission will put a stop to Pedro Sánchez's attacks on the rule of law in Spain - including a rule to limit freedom of the press, in retaliation against the media that uncover socialist corruption scandals - while in Brussels the European People's Party and the socialists ally themselves with the same anti-democratic purpose?

---

Photo: AFP. Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference of the European People's Party.