The head of the U.S. Assembly Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan scolded European Commissioner for the interior marketplace Thierry Breton for threatening Elon Musk, owner of Platform X.
The Congressman accused a Eurocrat from France that he did not explain himself sufficiently from the threats directed at Musk about suppressing legitimate statements.
Last month, Congressman Jordan responded to Breton's open letter, in which he ordered Musk to censor a planned interview with Donald Trump. He threatened platform X's owner with advanced penalties under the Digital Services Act (DSA), due to the possible wide dissemination of "hateful content". The European Commissioner warned preventatively Musk against "improving harmful content" that reaches European users.
"Since applicable content is available to EU users and is besides reinforced in our jurisdiction, we cannot regulation out possible side effects in the EU," Breton wrote in a message published on X.
He added that "any negative impact of illegal content" could prompt the EU to take further action against X, utilizing "our full tools, including by adopting interim measures, if justified to defend EU citizens from harm". It is about excluding access to the platform for European users.
In consequence to Breton's unacceptable censorism, Musk placed a meme on his platform with a vulgar term.
American politicians responded immediately. The home of Representatives' Judicial Committee wrote a letter ordering the Eurocrat to halt EU interference in US policy by attempting to censor the Internet.
Freedom of speech is 1 of the fundamental freedoms of citizens and allows not only to proclaim your own views, to share your suggestions, interpretations with others, but besides means the right to learn about the views, opinions, suggestions of others.
In fresh years, a number of unprecedented actions have been taken, especially in Western countries, to build “resistance” of democracy under the pretext of fighting mis-, mal- and misinformation, limiting access to certain messages, while at the same time strengthening the “only right” communicative (i.e. disinformation) ruling on crucial economic, social and political issues.
Now the head of the judiciary committee responded to Bretton's explanatory letter. The commissioner tried to deny that he was threatening Musk.
"Your answer... has not dispelled our concerns that you may effort to censor or suppress legitimate statements in the United States, utilizing the Digital Services of the European Union Act", can be read in the correspondence that the Brussels Signal portal reads.
Jordan stated that Commissioner Bretton's only logical conclusion was that his letter expressed a threat to Musk. He warned that the EU would "fully usage [its] tools" if it facilitated political statements they disagree with".
Bretton, who is simply a computer scientist and manager, assured that the EU advocates freedom of speech, and his threats to Musko were simply a reminder that "illegal content" and alleged "disinformation" would be under control and removed from platform X in the event of an interview with president Trump. "We have no position on the context of the interview, and the political views of the characters of this interview are irrelevant in our decision to send this letter," the Commissioner wrote.
Jordan responded to Breton on September 10, indicating that they “received a answer to their letter of 15 August about threats of retaliation against Elon Musk, an American citizen, and X Corp., an American company, for facilitating political discourse in the United States.”
"Your response, however, has not dispelled our concerns that you can effort to censor or suppress legitimate statements in the United States by utilizing the Digital Services Act of the European Union".
Jordan reacted sharply to Breton's claim that the request for censorship in the EU is in line with freedom of speech, as the Commission is trying to control alleged "disinformation" that violate European values.
The Congressman pointed out that EU officials do not have a monopoly on the truth, and the votes against their policies are needed due to the fact that "Expert consensus is frequently wrong, as has late shown the destructive effects imposed by the lockdown government."
‘DSA, as you admit in your letter, requires very large online platforms (VLOP), specified as X, Facebook and YouTube, take mitigation measures against alleged misinformationIt’s okay. ”
‘DSA defines misinformation as kind content, and since DSA regulates misinformation, DSA – contrary to your claims – regulates content. In fact, in your threatening letter to Elon Musk, you made it clear that the DSA was obliged to X to censor allegedly harmful content – i.e. content not liked by the EU".
Jordan added that it is besides untruthful to assure Brett that he would "never interfere in the American democratic process." His actions show the opposite. Similarly, Bretton's assurance that he would send any owner or general manager of a technological giant a akin letter to that sent to Musk in the event of a "scale-up" event is not worth anything.
‘You say You decided to compose Mr. Musk to make certain that trust and safety systems X are working decently to deal with a likely increase in online activity that could increase the dissemination in the EU of user posts possibly containing illegal content, misinformation or posts that conflict with the terms of usage of the platformIt’s okay. ”
‘However, to our knowledge, you have not sent a akin letter concerning likely increase in online activity with respect to any another American political discourse broadcast live in X that might allegedly contain an alleged misinformation or harmful content.’
The congressman requested additional explanations from the Commissioner and another EC officials, including the transmission of all correspondence that the European Commission had with the Biden-Harris administration, attempting to usage EU government to circumvent the first amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech. The European Commission is to inform congressmen of any effort to press, express threats and force censorship on American companies. A deadline was set for information to be provided on 24 September.
Jordan is conducting a major investigation into the Biden-Harris administration's force on online platforms to censor certain content. It's an investigation into an industrial censorship complex. The findings of the members of the committee so far are shocking. It points to the engagement in censorship of a number of academic institutions, alleged fact-checking organisations and government officials. Censorship concerns content critical of covid, climate, green governance, ruling criticisms, etc.
Source: brusselssignal.eu
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