A French and German plot to impose censorship plans on the EU could impact the entire world, the American journalist and free speech campaigner Michael Shellenberger has told GB News.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Shellenberger said: “I am worried about the growing French influence in the EU.”
Emmanual Macron is facing pressure from all sides in France
PA
He continued: “But the Germans as well are very authoritarian when it comes to these issues.”
“So I worry that especially with Britain out of the EU, that the French and the Germans will impose an agenda of censorship that would affect not just Europe but the whole world, since it would be easier to just apply these censorship standards rather than to geo locate them in terms of limits to freedom of speech.”
Michael Shellenberger spoke of the censorship permeating Europe
GB News
Ursula von der Leyen is vying for a second term in office as President of the European CommissionPAThe free speech campaigner warned that one prominent EU bureaucrat represents one of the world’s greatest threats to online freedom.
Shellenberger said that Thierry Breton, a French EU Commissioner is “at the top of the list” of those trying to clamp down on free speech worldwide.
The journalist continued: “He's the head of enforcement for the Digital Services Act, which is the name of the legislation in Europe that gives the EU this incredible amount of power to control social media, to censor social media.”
“So I would say he'd be at the top of the list. But you see bad actors everywhere.”
Macron faces revolt over the amendmentPA“In Brazil, it's President Lula and the Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In Canada, it's Justin Trudeau.”
“I would say in Ireland, in Scotland, it's the Prime Minister and the First Minister.
"But happily, both of them have recently resigned, in part due to controversy around their censorship legislation, which they call hate speech legislation.”
In November 2023 the Digital Services Act came into effect across the European Union.
The legislation bans targeted advertising of online users on the basis of personal data, requires transparency from companies over their algorithms and allows users to “flag” illegal goods and “misinformation” online.
Free speech campaigners have raised concerns the law will lead to censorship and will have serious consequences for online free speech.
Shellenberger said when it comes to threats to online freedom, he was “most worried about the European Union simply because of its size and influence”.
He continued: “There's 500 million people in the European Union. It's the largest economic bloc in the world.”
“You've got a character there named Thierry Breton who was the finance minister of France, a close advisor to President Emmanuel Macron.
"The French have the most authoritarian attitudes culturally towards speech there.”
“We in the United States and Britain are much closer, but even Britain has lower protections for free speech.”
“But France has even lower protections than that.”
The American investigative journalist previously exposed the Twitter files, which showed intelligence agencies including the FBI attempted to censor users of the social media platform.
He told GB News that attempts by European intelligence groups to raise concerns around alleged Russian disinformation was akin to political interference in European elections.
Shellenberger warned European politicians are “are weaponising their intelligence agencies for political reasons”.
“We've got the European elections coming up for the European Parliament on June 9th, and it's impossible not to see this,” he said.
“This [disinformation] campaign is related to some sort of election interference.”