Below is my column in The Hill on the move of the European Union to force Elon Musk to censor X users, including political speech leading up to the 2024 election. The column discusses this Rockwell painting, which we often use in discussing free speech controversies.
Here is the column:
Eighty years ago, the U.S. government launched a war bond campaign featuring a painting by artist Norman Rockwell in the struggle against the authoritarian threat from Europe. The picture they chose was Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech depicting a man rising to speak his mind at a local council meeting in Vermont. The image rallied the nation around what Louis Brandeis called our “indispensable right.”
Now, that very right is again under attack from another European government, which is claiming the right to censor what Americans are allowed to say about politics, science and other subjects. Indeed, the threat from the European Union may succeed in curtailing American freedom to an extent that the Axis powers could not have imagined. They may win, and our leaders have not said a thing yet about it.
In my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss the inspiration for Rockwell’s painting: a young selectman in Vermont named James “Buddy” Edgerton. The descendent of a Revolutionary War hero, Edgerton stood up as the lone dissenter to a plan to build a new schoolhouse over the lack of funding for such construction.
For Rockwell, the scene was a riveting example of how one man in this country can stand alone and be heard despite overwhelming opposition to his views. It was, for Rockwell (and for many of us), the quintessential American moment.
In the 1940s, people like Edgerton had to travel to small board meetings or public spaces to speak their mind. Today, the vast majority of political speech occurs over the Internet and specifically social media. That is why the internet is the single greatest advancement for free speech since the printing press.
It is also the reason governments have spent decades seeking to control speech over the internet, to regulate what people can say or read.
One of the greatest threats to free speech today is the European Digital Services Act. The act bars speech that is viewed as “disinformation” or “incitement.” European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager celebrated its passage by declaring that it is “not a slogan anymore, that what is illegal offline should also be seen and dealt with as illegal online. Now it is a real thing. Democracy’s back.”
In Europe, free speech is in free fall. Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other countries have eviscerated free speech by criminalizing speech deemed inciteful or degrading to individuals or groups. The result had made little difference to the neo-Nazi movement in countries like Germany, which is reaching record numbers. It has, however, silenced the rest of society.
According to polling, only 18 percent of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. Fifty-nine percent of Germans do not even feel free expressing themselves in private among friends. Only 17 percent feel free to express themselves on the internet.
They have silenced the wrong people, but there is now a massive censorship bureaucracy in Europe and the desire to silence opposing voices has become insatiable.
Some in this country have the same taste for speech-regulation. After Elon Musk bought Twitter and dismantled most of the company’s censorship program, many on the left went bonkers. That fury only increased when Musk released the “Twitter files,” confirming the long-denied coordination and support by the government in targeting and suppressing speech.
In response, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic figures turned to Europe and called upon them to use their Digital Services Act to force censorship against Americans.
The EU immediately responded by threatening Musk with confiscatory penalties against not just his company but himself. He would have to resume massive censorship or else face ruin.
It was a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. The anti-free speech movement had finally found the one man who could not be bullied, coerced or threatened into submission.
Musk’s defiance has only magnified the unrelenting attacks against him in the media, academia and government. If Musk can be broken, these figures will once again exercise effective control over a large swath of speech globally.
This campaign recently came to a head when Musk had the audacity to interview former president Donald Trump. In anticipation of the interview, one of the most notorious anti-free speech figures in the world went ballistic.
European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Thierry Breton issued a threatening message to Musk, “We are monitoring the potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political — or societal — events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”
While offering a passing nod to the freedom of speech, he warned Musk that “all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events.” In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.
Musk responded with “Bonjour!” and then suggested that Breton perform a physically challenging sexual act.
To recap, the EU is now moving to force censorship upon American citizens to meet its own demands of what is false, demeaning or inciting. And that includes censorship even of our leading political candidates for the presidency.
The response from the Biden administration was not a presidential statement warning any foreign government from seeking to limit our rights or even Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling the EU ambassador to his office for an expression of displeasure.
That’s because Biden and Harris are not displeased with but supportive of letting the EU do what they are barred from doing under our Constitution. This administration is arguably the most anti-free speech government since John Adams signed the Sedition Act. They have supported a massive system of censorship, blacklisting and targeting of opposing voices. Democratic members have given full-throated support for censorship, including pushing social media companies to expand in areas ranging from climate control to gender identity.
So, after only 80 years, our leaders are silent as a European government threatens to reduce our political speech to the lowest common denominator, which they will set according to their own values. Not a shot will be fired as Biden and Harris simply yield our rights to a global governing system.
But we do not have to go quietly into this night. Free speech remains a human right that is part of our DNA as Americans. We can fight back and protect millions of Edgertons who want to express their views regardless of the judgment of the majority.
I previously called for legislation to get the U.S. government out of the censorship business domestically. We also need new legislation to keep other countries from regulating the speech of our own citizens and companies. While this country has long threatened retaliation in combatting market barriers in other countries, we need to do the same thing for free speech. We need a federal law that opposes the intrusion of the Digital Services Act into the U.S.
If free speech is truly the “indispensable right” of all Americans, we need to treat this threat as an attack on our very existence. It is not only the rawest form of foreign intervention into an election, but a foreign attack on our very freedoms. This is why we must pass a Digital Freedom Act.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).
Professor Turley is correct. It s time to protect those interests which allow us to protect our interests. Content moderation is in the throws the “great experiment” which, by the way is mentioned 39 times in the Federalist Papers. It is now the case of Musk v. Harris before the general public. The parties are invited to submit points and authorities in support of their position. In doing so they need to declare their position of support. This generates the necessarily adversarial process contemplated by the founders. That ferocious debate referenced by Gorsuch. It is the debate on the limits of tolerance and where, specifically, the parties are going to find those limits and in so doing, provide information to the very informed populace to decide for themselves with whom they agree and thereby position themselves.
A couple of housekeeping rules, the parties may not merely scoff at the defects of their opponents but must be clear of their own independent convictions in terms that are clear, certain and communicated. This is not time for generalizations and fluff. The calculus on toleration requires definition. In so doing the already informed populace can quantify and organize those many facts which populate this controversy. The subject matter is content, the most protected subject.
The preliminary issues seem to be clear. Should Musk respect the “dark patterns” argument of his opponents in the European Union and, in turn, the arguments made against him in the United States? (Some may be tempted to include Trump in this conversation but like Thrasymachus he continues to repeat his views, only more stridently, which serve to the advantage of the stronger and the privileged. These views have little to do with reason which requires that a party listen as well as speak.) And so now we come to the doorstep of candidate Harris. Will she condone the jawboning of her predecessor? Does she have an independent conviction of her own and , if so, what is that position specifically? The time for preparation is over. The game starts in ten minutes. Either you are ready or you are not.
Oh the trials and tribulations as the world takes steps to protect itself from the sort of demagoguery and foreign influenced lies you chuckle heads at fox vibe on and toss around at the mothership, ayyy Turldog?
Think of it that the world is trying to protect you guys from trying to self implode with further $787 million defamation costs. Party on!!
Let the West be cautioned by the message in the link I have provided. Yet. there is another community of faith, whose Orthodox members adhere to their tenets while, at the same time, professing allegiance to the country of their birth, or the one they have been chosen by, obeying its laws and attempting to live in peace. This community has, through its efforts and its manifold gifts, contributed to the good and welfare of the nations of the world. In doing so, it has been awarded 23% of the Nobel Prizes since their inception. Yet, a war of virulent hate continues to be waged against them, supported in part, by an enemy of the West. The West is betting on the wrong horse. The West are making every effort to aid and abet a sworn sociopolitical, economic, cultural and religious adversary to develop a petard which, they themselves might ultimately be hoisted upon. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1925169197879764
* thanks for the post.
Zzdoc, the man speaking in the video has committed perjury. He lied in his naturalization papers.
Didn’t this man commit perjury? He lied on his citizenship forms?
Universities are back in session and the Democratic Party is set to begin its convention. It all sets the stage for pro Hamas and antisemite demonstrations and disruptions once again. With words for the reasonable, Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder, Hassan Yousef, has disturbing things to say about his experiences and dire concerns that the threatening situation in the Middle East and what it portends further beyond will not change until and unless the Islamists are removed from power in Iran.
He has stated what we already know that the result of the U.S. presidential election will not impact Hamas or Iran’s other proxy groups, who will “hate America – it doesn’t matter who’s in office,” but he does worry about a president who “is not firm enough, not strong enough behind the fundamentals of America.”
https://www.amazon.com/Hamas-America-Unimaginable-Redemption-Opportunity/dp/1637633181
This is a must read. I’m sending to family and friends.
And to think they falsely accused Trump of using foreign interference…
Except that the accusation is TRUE, not false. Excerpted from Wikipedia, in a piece entitled “Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election”:
“Findings on the hack and leak of Democratic Party material
The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Russian president Vladimir Putin had ordered the 2016 Democratic National Committee cyber attacks and the subsequent leaks of stolen material damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.[51]
The committee wrote that Trump’s presidential campaign “sought to maximize the impact of those leaks to aid Trump’s electoral prospects”. The Trump campaign “created messaging strategies to promote and share” the material, and “encouraged further leaks”. The Trump campaign tasked Trump associate Roger Stone to gather information about WikiLeaks’ release of the material; Stone reported to Trump and senior campaign members.[52]
Findings on Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik
The Senate Intelligence Committee assessed that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s “high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services” was a “grave counterintelligence threat”.[50] The foremost individual was Manafort’s employee Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian.[50] The committee identified Kilimnik as a “Russian intelligence officer”; describing that Manafort and Kilimnik had a “close and lasting relationship” even through the 2016 election.[53] Manafort repeatedly tried to “secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik”, including “sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy”.[53]
The Senate Intelligence Committee introduced a new allegation regarding Kilimnik, that he “may have been connected” to the Russian military intelligence’s hack and leak of Democratic Party material. However, the report’s discussions on this topic are redacted.[54] Manafort’s connection with the Russian hack and leak operation is “largely unknown”, but possible, given “two pieces of information” the committee found; the details of such information were also redacted.[53]
Findings on the Transition
The Transition section of the report mentions that “Russia took advantage of members of the Transition Team’s relative inexperience in government, opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy.”[55][56]”
Consider also the fact that Trump welcomed public release of information hacked from the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, but says releasing information hacked from his campaign, especially about the vetting of J.D. Vance, would be wrong.
Gigenius shows her low IQ by a lame gaslighting attempt. Instead of being outraged at the contents of the emails, she pretends to be mad about who exposed them.
Democracy dies in darkness, Gigenius.
You should also have welcomed the release of the DNC emails, because YOU were the one being duped.
I guess you like being duped, eh Gigenius?
Tom, pretending to be “Anonymous’–I am outraged by the overt hypocrisy and Trump’s endless lying about soliciting help from Russia to cheat in 2016. Why is it OK to hack and release Hillary’s and the DNC’s e-mails, but not his, especially those involving his vetting of J.D. Vance? Notice I didn’t call you any names?
Pure bologna. The only information shared by Manafort was political polling from Real Clear Politics, showing Trump had a chance to win. Kilimnik was a business associate of Manafort. The Senate report, merely expressing opinion, was debunked.
Edwardmahl: cite some reputable source. The Senate Intelligence Committee was bipartisan. Paul Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud.
what do tax fraud charges have to do with Manafort’s sharing polling information?
Gigi’s first lie is the name she/it/her/they/them/us/we post.
NUTCHACHACHA is terrified of losing her more-than-fair share of “her” benefits and entitlements in the forms of “free stuff” and “free status,” etc.
Communism buffs NUTCHACHACHA up into something replicating a real person (In your dreams, sweetheart!).
Republican and Democratic “additional views” and Disagreements
The Senators’ conclusions were sharply divided along party lines as to the degree of involvement by the Trump campaign and “whether to absolve or condemn the Trump campaign”.[60]
The New York Times wrote:
“The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, found insufficient evidence to accuse anyone associated with the Trump campaign of engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Russian intelligence officials conducting interference operations. “
^^^ The part from the same Wikipedia article that Gigi intentionally left out
I am supposed to fear the dictator who says “Fight, fight, fight!” After being shot but not the defenders of our democracy who would throw me in jail for liking the comment?
–the very same “defenders of our democracy” whom Kamala leads in the chant, “We will fight, fight” to win her election (see videos of her campaign speeches/rallies).
This is pretty funny stuff, -coming from the EU, -where media-bias-rated left-wing “Euro News;” Britain’s “The Guardian,” “BBC News,” and the birthplace of sensational tabloid news, believed by many, many); France’s “JDD,” “AFP,” and “France 24; Germany’s “DW” (Deutsche Welle) basically monopolize news sources. They share a common theme to motivate readers: all conservatives and right-wingers are labeled “far-right” and represent “a threat to democracy.” Hmmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
And get this one: In June (2024), “When French voters delivered Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party an overwhelming victory in this month’s European Parliament elections, President Emmanuel Macron…called a snap election…in which the French people would be given a choice: replicate the decision made in the European elections and hand the far right the keys to national governance,- or help thwart them.” https://time.com/6991254/macron-bardella-le-pen-far-right-left-election/
(accidentally hit “send.”
Continued: the above article in US Time Magazine entitled, “Macron Called an Election to Thwart the Far Right. He Resuscitated the Left Instead.”
To continue from the above source, “Just days after the contest was announced, the country’s main left-wing parties—among them the center-left Socialists, the Greens, the Communists, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left France Unbowed—announced a new electoral pact. Dubbed the “New Popular Front”—which borrows its name from a short-lived political coalition between Socialists and Communists that emerged in response to the threat of fascism in the 1930s—the four-party alliance has committed to campaign on a common platform with a joint list of candidates.”
What happened the second time around? “The [newly-created coalition] left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) alliance secured the biggest number of seats but will fall short of the 289 needed to secure an outright majority in the lower house.”
Sound familiar? Uniting all the marginal minorities groups/classes into a common coalition to usurp the majority? This is the thing I started writing about when I first joined this blog a few years ago.
see, also: https://news.sky.com/story/france-election-what-the-result-means-and-how-a-new-government-can-be-formed-13174907
*SENATOR KEELEY
It’s not new. DSA is book burning. Little algorithms are the fires.
Socrates drank poison. The Emporers New Clothes taught another form of censorship. When people self censor swindlers are near. The theft of truth isn’t new. Then there’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and lobotomies work, too.
Speech is inalienable. Ideas are apparently dangerous things. Speech and the written word are things mankind does. It’s part of the physical being like an arm or a leg. They are inalienable.
* speech is a brain center. It’s physical and inalienable.
Humans also have movement unlike trees that can’t walk. It was noticed long ago cheetahs are better at some movements like running. They aren’t better at speech. They aren’t better mathematicians etc.
Speech is unique. It produces ideas and man can put together imaginary ideas. It’s quite amazing.
Does Tim Walz want to give terrorists the right to vote in American elections?
“Minnesota awarded more than $2 million to a Muslim group that fundraises for an al Qaeda-linked charity under the tenure of Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.).
The Islamic Association of North America (IANA) received state grants from 2019 to 2024, the Washington Examiner reported.”
If what you say is true it’s illegal.
Fellow NATO states should be put on notice that the US will not offer common defense of any country that attempts to enforce the European Digital Services Act against any American citizen for speech made in the US or any US territory. That should get the attention of the minions in Brussels.
Shouldnt matter where they are if they are not in the country attempting to enforce this insanity.
JT: “Free speech remains a human right that is part of our DNA as Americans.”
That’s why they are trying to bring in a whole new set of future “Americans.”
True
My main question is; Just who are these soldiers that are going to do the fighting? Certainly not our DOJ or our Secretary of State – They seem to be pre-occupied with electing a candidate in full favor of censorship… Perhaps Facebook or MSNBC will step up to the front line – oh wait – never mind.
The European Digital Services Act, effectively setting up The Ministry of Truth in the EU.
NeoMarxist censorship by the mandarins of the Frankfurt School Philosopher Kings’ aristocracy, tearing down the edifice of Liberté of 1789. 1984 – alive and kicking on The Continent, and the UK as well.
Defenders of Liberty, unite! You have nothing to lose but the shackles of Kafkaesque bureaucratic censorship.
Oh darn it, another republican pays the price for their fraudulent behavior.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/19/politics/george-santos-expected-plead-guilty-fraud/index.html
Can we please get the Felon sexual abuser trump back in as president so he can pardon all he low life criminals that supported him?
In the words of E Jean Carol—> rape is sexy. Everyone has dreams of being raped.
Right
That attitude will get you lots of women voters. Keep it up.
* she actually said that in an interview.
She’s a perv An absolute nut job and you are free to believe her with limited info.
No, not all people think that ms jean. What makes her a perv? The confusing of helplessness and ?
Please take an ad out and send this to every voter. I’m sure you will get every woman in the country to agree with you and vote for the sexual predator, felon, trump
Oh wait, never mind, trump has JD to make sure they get the women vote.
Are you saying a requirement for the presidency is fidelity? It’s not in the Constitution.
Carol is deluded and couldn’t recall what happened years ago in the alcoholic haze. Fake.
The woman goes into a changing room and puts on transparent lingerie allegedly? Right.
He wasn’t convicted of rape. The jury disallowed it and found for assault etc. It was a civil suit for money. You’ve lied but it’s your right to lie. You aren’t under oath.
“That attitude will get you lots of women voters. Keep it up.”
Do you imagine tgis person is running for office?
Weird
Even most women think EJC is lying.
Repeal the 19th. America has had enough.
The 21st repealed the 18th in just over a decade.
Pathetic.
Yes, E Jean Carol is pathetic. She said that in an interview . Funny huh…
E Jean’s evidence is that she told her friends of her un-rape with no evidence, DNA, security video, witnesses, rape kit, etc.
E Jean lied to her friends, in my opinion.
What’s new?
““Europe is belatedly discovering how unbelievably stupid it was to import millions of people from cultures that despise Western values and which often promote hatred toward the people who have let them in.”…Thomas Sowell So now they bend over and take it from Islamists who, by force, demand that you change your culture to suit their needs because, if you don’t, they will burn it down and remake it to their liking.
“They may win, and our leaders have not said a thing yet about it.”
Professor Turley, were you late to the party? Before the second year of the Obama administration, we knew that free speech was endangered. The bureaucracy in Washington was weaponized. Think of who you voted for since then, and then think about who is to blame for our potential loss of free speech.
@S. Meyer
My thoughts too. It was clear to when Tipper Gore was the de facto censorship czar, in a manner of speaking, with the PMRC. Soros was in the mix then; it was clear as well what Obama was doing midway through his first term. This version of the DNC has been percolating for some time, the writing was indeed on the wall.
It’s too late to change the past, so will people like the Professor make different choices NOW? A lot won’t because they are cowardly zealots that still believe individual candidates mean jack or sheet in the democratic party, or that there is any pretense remaining that dem candidates are not installed but elected.
*Who* are the bucktoothed Cletuses that have just coasted along in ignorance again? 🙄🙄
At least Tipper only wanted labeling. These authoritarians want legal sanctions.
If you think PMRC had any legal clout listen to “Freedom of speech (but watch what you say) by Ice T before he sold out.
He was able to say the things he said with zero consequences. I suspect he couldn’t do so today.
@Ti317
Yes, but that ‘harmless’ labeling is part of what got the ball rolling. The ‘political correctness’ movement gained a whole lot of steam then too, and that was sort of the gateway to the full-on woke Marxism that had been largely dormant since the 60s, IMO. It is a trajectory we can trace, and it is due in large part to people thinking that the democratic party in any way, shape, or form represented the people’s freedoms. To be fair, the RNC was a dumpster fire then as well. We are probably about where we should be given how we’ve done things for 40+ years, so to me the question is: are we finally ready to try something different and act as though this stuff matters, and actually be forward thinking like the founders were and see where seemingly incidental malfeasance can lead very quickly to capitulation or collapse without constant course correction and balance?
Exactly! Very similar to a gentleman from Arizona that I corresponded with for a while. He continually asserted that he was not at all for “open borders”, while voting 100% Democrat….
@S.Meyer: Obama’s mantra was ‘change is coming’. The braindead and low information ‘folks’ who supported him thought he meant more ‘free stuff’. Change is not necessarily revolutionary but evolutionary. From what we know of Obama’s higher educational experiences, he learned this truth from his social engineering mentors at Columbia. Much like tertiary syphilis said change has been insidious and progressive across the past 16 years and not even the Trump hiatus has been able to stop it. Now the nation is singing and dancing to ‘Louie Louie’ and the clueless don’t understand why.
European Digital Services Act has the balls to say and think that they can control what people say on X here in the good ole USA. No you totalitarian minded fools, you have no authority over anything here in the USA, especially free speech, and if you try to enforce your ignorant laws over any part of our society you’re in for a bloody fight. Go ahead, IK dare you to try and come here to enforce your totalitarian laws over our speech, go ahead you F’king morons.
The European Digital Services Act and the fools that support it can…
BITE ME!!!
The EU is not the US, and they are free to have whatever laws they want. If Musk wants to do business in the EU, he needs to abide by their laws. The EU was not in any way censoring what Musk could stream to the US, he just could not stream some content to the EU.
Oh darn it, there you go, throwing cold water on the unfounded thesis that we don’t have free speech anymore. How dare you throw truth into the mix.
“. . . they are free to have whatever laws they want.”
BS.
There is no such thing as the “freedom” to impose a dictatorship or to usurp free speech. Did you learn nothing from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy?
And there is certainly no such thing as the “freedom” to impose tyranny on a U.S. citizen. Did you learn nothing from America’s Revolution?
Sammy was Nazi Germany within their rights to pass laws the took everything away from the Jews? Were the Italians right under Mussolini? How about Japan in the 30s and 40s? How about South Africa with apartheid? How about the Soviets and Jews? How about Mao, How about the Khmer Rouge? How about laws in East Germany that allowed the Stasi to dun wild? How about our own laws regarding slavery?
Weak minds like you say “hey, it’s the law” and then allow fascists and totalitarians to do whatever they want.
Sammy, you are a moron who will follow little idiots like Schumer and Biden off of a cliff.
The United States, through the Office of the President of the United States, should remind those pole-sitters in Europe of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, and explain to them in remedial terms that the United States will enforce the freedoms of their citizens, whether it brings detriment to the European Union or not. But our current regime will not do that, which is unfortunate. It reminds me of Nikita Khruschev saying that the US will be overcome by Soviet-style socialism without them firing a shot.
Alternatively, the President could invoke one of Ronald Reagan’s better quotes against the Soviet Union, this time directed at Brussels: “The bombing (of Brussels) will begin in 5 minutes.”