As Meta continues to battle with the European Union over censorship, the struggle threatens to involve multiple governments on both sides of the Atlantic—including the U.S.
Joel Kaplan, a former Republican strategist and now Meta’s global policy head, is determined not to cave to the E.U. amid the company’s pro-free speech shakeup, according to Bloomberg. At the Munich Security Conference, Kaplan emphasized that Meta might seek the assistance of U.S. President Donald Trump should the E.U. continue to target Meta with harsh censorship requests.
“When companies are treated differently and in a way that is discriminatory against them, then that should be highlighted to that company’s home government,” Kaplan said, as quoted by Bloomberg. “While we want to work within the confines of the laws that Europe has passed — and we always will — we will point out when we think we’ve been treated unfairly.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended Trump’s inauguration while implementing pro-free speech reforms on his social media platforms. The tech giant could find an ally against the E.U. in Trump; he previously criticized E.U. fines on social media companies as a “form of taxation” during the World Economic Forum conference in January, as Bloomberg noted.
Kaplan also challenged the E.U.’s definition of “misinformation,” which is often used to justify censorship. “We don’t want misinformation. People have different perspectives of what is misinformation and what is not,” he reportedly said, though it is unclear how much “misinformation” Meta is willing to censor.
Kaplan’s comments follow on JD Vance’s speech in Munich accusing the E.U. of attacking free speech. Even Newsweek is highlighting the stunning nature of the anti-free speech German raids after a 60 Minutes show came out immediately afterwards, where CBS reporters followed along with German police and filmed the raids of users who posted supposedly hateful social media content.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
