While the European Union (EU) is infamous for its contempt for free speech, it may have sunk to a new low by reportedly going after a religious app.
Tech entrepreneur Alex Jones (not to be confused with Infowars founder Alex Jones) announced that EU regulations were crushing the Hallow App, his popular Christian and Catholic platform that encourages prayer, meditation and Bible reading.
“Getting shut down in the EU it seems,” Jones, who is the app’s CEO and co-founder, wrote Jan. 28 on X. In a follow-up post, Jones explained that his app’s current difficulties were directly tied to its religious nature: “The EU is shutting us down by over-regulation, apparently targeting any religious app, making it effectively impossible for us to operate in the EU.”
The EU’s draconian Digital Services Act (DSA) goes after what it describes as “illegal hate speech” and “disinformation” online. The EU has infamously tried to control speech on a range of platforms such as Facebook and TikTok and has specifically targeted Elon Musk and X. Former EU commissioner Thierry Breton infamously referenced the DSA in a failed attempt to force Musk to censor himself during an X space with Donald Trump, then the Republican candidate for president.
In the case of Hallow, the enforcement threat was reportedly terrifyingly vague and showed an EU interest in regulating faith-based tech. “They said explicitly it was something that was being applied to all religious apps. Other than that everything has been very vague,” Jones explained to an X user. “No specific regulation cited.”
Jones denied suggestions the challenges were related to EU data privacy regulations. In another post, he clarified he would never sell users' data.
A Hallow employee told MRC Free Speech America that its international team is monitoring the situation in the EU.
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