Multiple American tech companies are involved in the German public-private network crushing free speech, according to a new study.
Google, Microsoft and Meta are key parts of the complicated and far-reaching German censorship complex, according to a recent study from Liber-net, a digital civil liberties initiative. Liber-net insisted that Germany is a major player in the European Union censorship regime, accusing the German government, in conjunction with private companies, fact-checkers, academics and NGOs, of enforcing authoritarian censorship under the guise of combating “hate speech” and “disinformation.”
Liber-net shared a graphic of the major players in the German censorship network and how they are all connected. It explained that its methodology was one developed in conjunction with Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi. Besides organizations and grants databases, Liber-net put together a report on all its findings, titled “The Censorship Network: Regulation and Repression in Germany Today.”
JUST IN - Study exposes how a large state-funded "Censorship Network" steers the online debate in Germany, endangering freedom of expression in Europe's largest economy. pic.twitter.com/OBqKUM4PxA
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 22, 2025
While the Trump administration restores free speech, U.S. companies still face EU censorship demands, the report detailed. For instance, Google has helped organize events with State Media Authorities, and funds the anti-free speech European Council on Foreign Relations, Liber-net accused.
Google News and Meta also reportedly cooperated with the German news agency DPA to control media narratives. Google and Meta both fund the think tanks and foundations, such as the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, that come up with the definitions of alleged disinformation and hate speech used to censor Germans and other EU citizens.
Furthermore, Microsoft supported censorship-promoting HateFree gGmbH, per Liber-net. Microsoft has also tied its software to ratings from NewsGuard, a biased online ratings firm repeatedly exposed by Media Research Center for its egregious left-wing bent.
But while Big Tech is often active in assisting censorship, sometimes it is the passive target for overreaching censorship requests. “US-based firms like Facebook and Google especially have been targets of [EU capital] Brussels and Berlin’s regulatory regime and may be assumed to oblige European government and the EU bureaucracy on matters of speech regulation out of necessity,” Liber-net admitted.
Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance bashed European censorship at the Munich Security Conference, eliciting indignant denials from EU leaders. Soon after, however, a 60 Minutes report exposed how many Germans were being arrested for social media posts, sometimes for as little as an anti-mass migration meme. It is also illegal in Germany to “insult” a politician.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on 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.
