\u2018European speech rules can end up shaping what Americans are allowed to say online,\u2019 Irish lawyer Lorcan Price said.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n![\"European](\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/_next\/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F11%2F16%2Fid5531219-Paivi-Rasanen-1080x720.jpeg&w=1200&q=75\")
Finnish Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen arrives to attend a court session at the Helsinki District Court in Helsinki, Finland, on Jan. 24, 2022. Antti Aimo-Koivisto\/Lehtikuva\/AFP via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBy Kevin Stocklin<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europeans who face criminal charges for what they said or wrote warned that Europe\u2019s speech laws can silence Americans as well, regardless of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s First Amendment protections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last week, Paivi Rasanen, a member of parliament in Finland, recounted how she has been prosecuted since 2021 for quoting Bible verses to church members and on social media that questioned her church\u2019s participation in a Gay Pride march. Although she was acquitted, first by a local district court and then by an appellate court, prosecutors appealed the decision to Finland\u2019s supreme court, where the case currently sits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy prosecution shows how quickly democratic societies can abandon free expression when the state decides which beliefs are acceptable,\u201d Rasanen told The Epoch Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI never imagined that quoting the Bible in a Twitter post would lead to years of criminal charges, yet this is now the reality in Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cAmericans should be concerned because once censorship is normalized, it never stays confined to one country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trend among Western countries to restrict religious speech has spread beyond Europe, with the Canadian government currently advancing a bill that would remove a religious exemption from \u201chate speech\u201d laws in the country\u2019s Criminal Code<\/a>. Similarly, newly proposed legislation in Queensland, Australia, would criminalize certain symbols and phrases, with penalties of up to two years in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile speaking before Congress, Rasanen was joined by Graham Linehan, an Irish writer and comedian who was arrested upon traveling through Heathrow Airport in 2025 for statements he had made in America on transgender issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor a decade, the British police have harassed me for expressing views that the majority of the public share,\u201d Linehan stated. \u201cWe have simply been punished for objecting to fashionable yet incoherent orthodoxies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Foreign Censorship Threat\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Their testimony was underscored by the release of a Feb. 3 House report titled \u201cThe Foreign Censorship Threat<\/a>,\u201d which charged that \u201cThe European Commission, in a comprehensive decade-long effort, has successfully pressured social media platforms to change their global content moderation rules, thereby directly infringing on Americans\u2019 online speech in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMore specifically, the report states that \u201cthough ostensibly meant to combat \u2018misinformation\u2019 and \u2018hate speech,\u2019 nonpublic documents produced to the Committee show that for the last 10 years, the European Commission has directly pressured platforms to censor lawful, political speech in the European Union and abroad.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This included regular meetings between U.S. tech companies and European Union regulators to put \u201ccontent moderation\u201d policies and algorithms in place to conform to European laws regarding \u201chate speech\u201d and \u201cmisinformation,\u201d the report states. The EU claims these initiatives were voluntary, but subpoenaed emails from tech executives stated that \u201cwe don\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judicial Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told hearing attendees that, based on subpoenas issued to U.S. tech companies regarding their correspondence with EU officials, a pattern of compelled censorship emerged that included U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe European Commission successfully pressured social media companies to change their global content moderation rules, directly harming the speech of Americans in the United States,\u201d Jordan stated. He also referenced an incident in which European commissioner Thierry Breton warned X owner Elon Musk that his company may face penalties for posting an interview with Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe European Commission is trying to censor speech and meddle in elections worldwide,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWhen the European Commission makes censorship demands, platforms have to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Safety or Control?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
According to the European Commission\u2019s website, the Digital Services Act<\/a> (DSA) \u201cempowers citizens by strengthening the protection of their fundamental rights online and giving them greater control and more choices when they navigate online platforms and search engines.\u201d The DSA also requires platforms to \u201cminimise the risks of exposing citizens, including children and young people, to illegal and harmful content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nCritics of EU speech laws say they have become a tool to punish U.S. tech companies for allowing any content that a European country has deemed to be illegal. In countries such as Germany, that could include insulting government officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFrench member of the European Parliament Virginie Joron called the DSA<\/a> a \u201cTrojan horse for surveillance and control.\u201d Joron accused government officials of having \u201cseized upon the DSA as a political tool to control speech, particularly targeting platforms like X, Facebook, and Telegram.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd legal analysts say that the reach of the DSA extends beyond Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DSA \u201ccreates a pathway for foreign governments to influence public debate inside the United States without ever passing a single American law,\u201d Lorcan Price, an Irish barrister who defended Rasanen and testified at the House hearing, told The Epoch Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe EU\u2019s Digital Services Act gives European regulators unprecedented leverage over American tech companies, which means European speech rules can end up shaping what Americans are allowed to say online,\u201d Price said. \u201cOnce U.S. platforms are forced to comply with European censorship demands to avoid massive fines, those restrictions don\u2019t stop at Europe\u2019s borders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enormous Fines and \u2018Days of Action\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
According to Price, U.S. companies have already been fined \u20ac3.8 billion for violating EU speech codes, and Spain has announced that it will impose criminal charges against company owners for violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe enormous fines levied on X corporation by the European Commission since the last hearing, has proved beyond all doubt that the European Union means to strangle free speech by a systemic assault on U.S. companies,\u201d Price told hearing attendees. \u201cThe EU has a multi-pronged strategy to open multiple investigations, to add more and more regulations and to impose crippling fines, and ultimately, I fear, to attempt to break up or ban companies such as X who are pro-free speech.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europe has become increasingly aggressive<\/a> in prosecuting speech crimes, with Germany leading the effort. In June 2025, German police conducted early morning raids on 140 residents who were accused of violating speech laws, as part of Germany\u2019s 12th annual \u201cday of action against hate-posts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nGermany prosecuted 10,732 of its citizens for \u201chate speech\u201d or \u201charmful speech\u201d in 2024, according to Germany\u2019s Federal Criminal Police Office. Similar actions have taken place in at least a dozen other European countries, according to Europol, the EU\u2019s law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These prosecutions have had a chilling effect on public expression. In a 2025 Cato report, author David Inserra stated<\/a> that Germans now feel increasingly \u201cunable to express their opinions, with multiple polls finding around 44 percent of Germans expressing such concerns, up from 16 percent in 1990.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Risks of an Unregulated Internet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The issue of online censorship has recently been complicated by the spread of child sexual abuse images and nonconsensual sexualized images of public figures, many of which were created by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Feb. 3, French police raided the offices of X<\/a>, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, charging the company with permitting child pornography and pornographic deepfake images on its site. They also summoned Musk for questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBritish regulators are also investigating instances in which Grok, X\u2019s AI chatbot, created numerous sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images at the request of X\u2019s users. In 2025, the United States passed the \u201cTake It Down Act<\/a>,\u201d which requires internet service providers, social media sites, and search engines to take down nonconsensual sexual material within 48 hours of being notified, and subjects individuals who post such material to up to two years imprisonment. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIn addition, children\u2019s access to online pornography has prompted many lawmakers, in Europe<\/a> and America<\/a>, to advocate for higher age limits to be imposed on internet access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Kevin Stocklin<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Europeans who face criminal charges for what they said or wrote warned that Europe\u2019s speech laws can silence Americans as well, regardless of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s First Amendment protections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee last week, Paivi Rasanen, a member of parliament in Finland, recounted how she has been prosecuted since 2021 for quoting Bible verses to church members and on social media that questioned her church\u2019s participation in a Gay Pride march. Although she was acquitted, first by a local district court and then by an appellate court, prosecutors appealed the decision to Finland\u2019s supreme court, where the case currently sits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy prosecution shows how quickly democratic societies can abandon free expression when the state decides which beliefs are acceptable,\u201d Rasanen told The Epoch Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI never imagined that quoting the Bible in a Twitter post would lead to years of criminal charges, yet this is now the reality in Europe,\u201d she said. \u201cAmericans should be concerned because once censorship is normalized, it never stays confined to one country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trend among Western countries to restrict religious speech has spread beyond Europe, with the Canadian government currently advancing a bill that would remove a religious exemption from \u201chate speech\u201d laws in the country\u2019s Criminal Code<\/a>. Similarly, newly proposed legislation in Queensland, Australia, would criminalize certain symbols and phrases, with penalties of up to two years in prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While speaking before Congress, Rasanen was joined by Graham Linehan, an Irish writer and comedian who was arrested upon traveling through Heathrow Airport in 2025 for statements he had made in America on transgender issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor a decade, the British police have harassed me for expressing views that the majority of the public share,\u201d Linehan stated. \u201cWe have simply been punished for objecting to fashionable yet incoherent orthodoxies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their testimony was underscored by the release of a Feb. 3 House report titled \u201cThe Foreign Censorship Threat<\/a>,\u201d which charged that \u201cThe European Commission, in a comprehensive decade-long effort, has successfully pressured social media platforms to change their global content moderation rules, thereby directly infringing on Americans\u2019 online speech in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n More specifically, the report states that \u201cthough ostensibly meant to combat \u2018misinformation\u2019 and \u2018hate speech,\u2019 nonpublic documents produced to the Committee show that for the last 10 years, the European Commission has directly pressured platforms to censor lawful, political speech in the European Union and abroad.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n This included regular meetings between U.S. tech companies and European Union regulators to put \u201ccontent moderation\u201d policies and algorithms in place to conform to European laws regarding \u201chate speech\u201d and \u201cmisinformation,\u201d the report states. The EU claims these initiatives were voluntary, but subpoenaed emails from tech executives stated that \u201cwe don\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judicial Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told hearing attendees that, based on subpoenas issued to U.S. tech companies regarding their correspondence with EU officials, a pattern of compelled censorship emerged that included U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe European Commission successfully pressured social media companies to change their global content moderation rules, directly harming the speech of Americans in the United States,\u201d Jordan stated. He also referenced an incident in which European commissioner Thierry Breton warned X owner Elon Musk that his company may face penalties for posting an interview with Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe European Commission is trying to censor speech and meddle in elections worldwide,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWhen the European Commission makes censorship demands, platforms have to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the European Commission\u2019s website, the Digital Services Act<\/a> (DSA) \u201cempowers citizens by strengthening the protection of their fundamental rights online and giving them greater control and more choices when they navigate online platforms and search engines.\u201d The DSA also requires platforms to \u201cminimise the risks of exposing citizens, including children and young people, to illegal and harmful content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics of EU speech laws say they have become a tool to punish U.S. tech companies for allowing any content that a European country has deemed to be illegal. In countries such as Germany, that could include insulting government officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n French member of the European Parliament Virginie Joron called the DSA<\/a> a \u201cTrojan horse for surveillance and control.\u201d Joron accused government officials of having \u201cseized upon the DSA as a political tool to control speech, particularly targeting platforms like X, Facebook, and Telegram.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And legal analysts say that the reach of the DSA extends beyond Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The DSA \u201ccreates a pathway for foreign governments to influence public debate inside the United States without ever passing a single American law,\u201d Lorcan Price, an Irish barrister who defended Rasanen and testified at the House hearing, told The Epoch Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe EU\u2019s Digital Services Act gives European regulators unprecedented leverage over American tech companies, which means European speech rules can end up shaping what Americans are allowed to say online,\u201d Price said. \u201cOnce U.S. platforms are forced to comply with European censorship demands to avoid massive fines, those restrictions don\u2019t stop at Europe\u2019s borders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Price, U.S. companies have already been fined \u20ac3.8 billion for violating EU speech codes, and Spain has announced that it will impose criminal charges against company owners for violations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe enormous fines levied on X corporation by the European Commission since the last hearing, has proved beyond all doubt that the European Union means to strangle free speech by a systemic assault on U.S. companies,\u201d Price told hearing attendees. \u201cThe EU has a multi-pronged strategy to open multiple investigations, to add more and more regulations and to impose crippling fines, and ultimately, I fear, to attempt to break up or ban companies such as X who are pro-free speech.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Europe has become increasingly aggressive<\/a> in prosecuting speech crimes, with Germany leading the effort. In June 2025, German police conducted early morning raids on 140 residents who were accused of violating speech laws, as part of Germany\u2019s 12th annual \u201cday of action against hate-posts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Germany prosecuted 10,732 of its citizens for \u201chate speech\u201d or \u201charmful speech\u201d in 2024, according to Germany\u2019s Federal Criminal Police Office. Similar actions have taken place in at least a dozen other European countries, according to Europol, the EU\u2019s law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These prosecutions have had a chilling effect on public expression. In a 2025 Cato report, author David Inserra stated<\/a> that Germans now feel increasingly \u201cunable to express their opinions, with multiple polls finding around 44 percent of Germans expressing such concerns, up from 16 percent in 1990.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue of online censorship has recently been complicated by the spread of child sexual abuse images and nonconsensual sexualized images of public figures, many of which were created by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Feb. 3, French police raided the offices of X<\/a>, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, charging the company with permitting child pornography and pornographic deepfake images on its site. They also summoned Musk for questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n British regulators are also investigating instances in which Grok, X\u2019s AI chatbot, created numerous sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images at the request of X\u2019s users. In 2025, the United States passed the \u201cTake It Down Act<\/a>,\u201d which requires internet service providers, social media sites, and search engines to take down nonconsensual sexual material within 48 hours of being notified, and subjects individuals who post such material to up to two years imprisonment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, children\u2019s access to online pornography has prompted many lawmakers, in Europe<\/a> and America<\/a>, to advocate for higher age limits to be imposed on internet access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018Foreign Censorship Threat\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Safety or Control?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Enormous Fines and \u2018Days of Action\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Risks of an Unregulated Internet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n