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‘We are now the free world’ – Europe declares war on free speech in America

“We are the free world now.” Those words from Raphael Glucksmann, a French socialist member of the European Parliament, caught the pearl-clutching anger of Europeans after the Trump administration did what no previous administration had done — stand up in Europe to defend free speech.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio barred five people closely associated with European censorship efforts from visiting the US, including Thierry Breton, the former European Union commissioner responsible for digital policy.

In a post on X, Rubio announced that the United States “will no longer tolerate these abhorrent acts of external censorship” and will target “key figures in the global censorship-industrial complex from entering the United States.”

Breton achieved notoriety as the architect of the massive EU censorship system, which is now being globalized. Armed with the infamous Digital Services Act, Brayton and others threatened American companies and officials that they must comply with European standards of freedom of expression. After Breton learned that Musk was planning to interview Trump before the final presidential election, he warned the X boss that he would be “monitored” and potentially subject to EU fines.

The socialist Glucksmann is now furious at “this scandalous admission against Thierry Breton”.

“We are Europeans,” he declared. “We must defend our laws, our principles, our interests.” In other words, this is a battle over whether Europe or the US Constitution will dictate the scope of free speech for US companies and citizens.

Breton and his colleagues are finally treated for what they are: a clear and present threat to the “inalienable rights” that define all Americans.

Anti-free speech figures in the US have enlisted the EU to force companies like X and Facebook to restore censorship of Americans. After Musk bought Twitter with a promise to restore free speech protections, Hillary Clinton called on European authorities to force censorship under Europe’s Digital Services Act.

Nina Jankowicz, the former head of Biden’s infamous Disinformation Governance Board, appeared before the European Parliament. He called on the 27 EU countries to fight against the US, which he described as a global threat.

The EU took up the challenge enthusiastically. This year, I spoke at the World Forum in Berlin, which promoted the slogan, “A New World Order with European Values.” Bill and Hillary Clinton and other Americans applauded the European efforts.

The Digital Services Act prohibits speech that is viewed as “distorting information” or “incitement”. When it passed to the condemnation of many of us in the free speech community, European Commission Executive Vice President Margaret Vestager celebrated by declaring that it was “no longer a slogan – what’s illegal offline must be seen and treated as illegal online. Now it’s the real thing. Democracy is back.”

This is actually the “real thing”. In my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the challenges our republic faces in the 21st century, including the EU and its transnational governance model. Many on the left are advocating the erosion of national laws and values in favor of standards set by global experts and elites.

This cadre of American enablers is increasingly making noise in Europe. Notably, late-night ABC host Jimmy Kimmel denounced the United States as a global threat on Christmas Eve in Great Britain. He declared that “from the perspective of fascism, this has been a really great year. The tyranny here is on the rise.”

It was an ugly irony. Many of us have been writing for years about how freedom of speech has been eroded in the United Kingdom, where people are prosecuted for “toxic ideologies” and an ever-longer list of unacceptable political views.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett warned this week about the collapse of free speech in the United Kingdom. Still, there was a comedian, who earns millions and attacks Trump nightly, to complain about the threat to freedom of speech in America.

Both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary Rubio have given keynote speeches warning against efforts to export censorship systems to the EU, particularly targeting US citizens and companies. After years of encouragement and enablement from the Obama and Biden administrations, the US government is finally in the fight.

So Europe is up in arms, denouncing the move to ban these officials as an attack on its own sovereignty. In other words, trying to protect our own free speech values is a threat to the proclaimed “New World Order with European values”.

Actually, I don’t like the travel ban. I wish these figures would come to this country and confront free-speech advocates. However, despite our appeal to the Congress to join this fight, nothing could be done due to the opposition of the democratic members. We cannot wait as the EU weaponises and globalises censorship.

Glucksmann is right about one thing. It is a battle over what can rightly be called the “free world” today. In America, we cling to the quaint notion that the free world must be based on … well, freedom.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” forthcoming on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

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