(WND)—America has just gone through a number of years where there were massive campaigns to censor the opinions of its citizens. You might recall what happened to those who doubted Anthony Fauci’s wild claim that he was “science” and those COVID shots were the saving of the nation. Or those who questioned the undue influences on the 2020 presidential election, including the FBI’s interference.
From the White House pressure on social media companies to banish ideas with which Joe Biden and his administration disagreed, to the willing cooperation of those companies, to the shunning of those who had alternative views to the stunningly extra-constitutional “canceling” of those individuals, President Donald Trump has pledged to end it.
But now there’s appearing a scheme by European bureaucrats to pick up where Biden, Kamala Harris and Facebook left off.
According to a report from the Washington Stand, those bureaucrats are considering plans to apply their “online censorship” agenda to Americans.
Free speech promoters warn what is being lined up is dangerous.
“Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) debated expanding the Digital Services Act (DSA) last week, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International,” the report explained, noting the controversial DSA took effect just last year and already requires the removal of “illegal” content from social media software.
Now those bureaucrats want to move far beyond cracking down on illegal material to pursue their claimed objective to “protect democracy” in Europe from “foreign interference.”
They specifically are concerned about Elon Musk, who restored free speech to the X platform when he took it over, and the leftists in Europe are accusing him of promoting the “far right” because he’s spoken in support of Trump’s pro-America agenda.
Curiously, it was Democrats in America who for years have claimed to want to be protecting democracy by attacking Trump and conservatives in America. For that agenda, they insisted on controlling what people saw and read, and they even tried to restrict the candidates for whom Americans could vote.
The report said Iratxe Garcia, a lawmaker and chief of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, claimed, “In recent months, we have seen how Elon Musk and his social network X have become the main promoter for the far right by supporting Donald Trump and Alice Weidel’s AfD party through fake news and hate messages.”
She is demanding that all those social media platforms follow the rules she wants to impose.
The European Union also has plans to expand its censorship staff to 200 people, a move that “would potentially allow the European Union (EU) to target American citizens for online speech considered hateful or criminal under European laws.”
There already are situations that have developed in Europe in which a simple statement of Christian faith has been considered hate speech.
The DSA already allows the EU to impose massive fines on social media corporations.
The report noted that while progressives in Europe, like their counterparts in America in recent years, like the idea of government censorship, conservatives there have warned that such programs are a “tool” for limiting political discussion.
Paul Coleman, chief of ADF International, said in the report, “We are living in a new bipolar order of speech. On the one hand, Europe is doubling down on censorship, while the U.S. is recommitting to its free speech heritage.
“This will usher in an unprecedented era of tension within the West itself over this most basic of human rights, and it is the responsibility of all who value freedom to side with the protection of free speech. The effects of the DSA will not be confined to Europe. There are legitimate worries that the DSA could censor the speech of citizens across the world, as social media companies could regulate their content globally to comply with European standards,” he told the Stand.
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Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
