A host of major social media platforms made a disturbing capitulation to European Union censors.
The day President Donald Trump took office, the European Commission announced that many tech platforms, including X, Facebook and YouTube had agreed to a “Code of conduct+” that pushes signatories to censor users. The code requires the platforms to allow busybody nonprofits and government agencies to flag content and monitor how the companies review hate speech notices. Platforms must also respond to at least two-thirds of the censorship notices raised by these monitors within 24 hours of receiving them.
The code of conduct additionally pushes the platforms to, “Engage with well-defined and specific transparency commitments as regards measures to reduce the prevalence of hate speech on their services, including through automatic detection tools.”
As if all these powerful prods to censor content were not enough, the code of conduct also requires companies to meet with “experts and civil society organizations” so that they can more efficiently spot “trends” and “developments” in disfavored speech to temper so-called hate speech before it goes viral. Similarly, the code asks that platforms along with these organizations, to “raise…users’ awareness about illegal hate speech” and teach them how to flag other users’ content
EU officials and policies have repeatedly thrown free speech to the wayside. For example, they have frequently targeted platforms such as X when they refuse to censor speech.
Notably, this recent capitulation by these social media platforms to the EU comes at a time when the EU is investigating X-owner Elon Musk.
When CNN covered the announcement, the leftist outlet noted the contrast between how platforms like Meta and X operate in the United States and how they operate in Europe. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, recently announced that he was dismantling the censorship regime on his platforms and cutting ties with censorious fact-checkers and yet one of his companies, Facebook, signed on to this EU code of conduct.
CNN also noted that Zuckerberg and allegedly Apple CEO Tim Cook have spoken to Trump about the draconian regulations the EU subjects American companies to. In Zuckerberg’s announcement of changes at Meta, he said, “We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”
Zuckerberg would double down in a Jan. 14 Joe Rogan Experience interview, calling for America to protect her companies from foreign governments. Zuckerberg said, “The U.S. government should be defending its companies, right? Not be the tip of the spear attacking its companies.”
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 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.
