Vice President JD Vance warned radio and podcast host Glenn Beck that Americans should be concerned about anti-free speech moves abroad, predicting significant “friction” between America and other nations.
Vance told Beck that America and Europe often have great influence upon one another, making censorship efforts in Europe a threat to the United States. “The kind of social media censorship that we've seen in Western Europe, it will and in some ways, it already has made its way to the United States. That was the story of the Biden administration silencing people on social media,” he said on the Thursday edition of the Glenn Beck Program.
Vance suggested he would defend both Americans and American companies from this censorship: “So we're going to be very protective of American interests when it comes to things like social media regulation. We want to promote free speech. We don't want our European friends telling social media companies that they have to silence Christians or silence conservatives—and I think there is going to be that friction over the next ten years.”
He added, “It’s not that we are not friends, but there’re gonna have some disagreements you didn’t see 10 years ago.”
Vance made these comments in response to a question from Beck about anti-free speech moves in Canada and the European Union following Vance’s speech denouncing censorship in Munich, Germany. During this speech, Vance condemned the EU’s Digital Services Act, a draconian law that pushes censorship of “illegal hate speech” and “disinformation” online.
The EU has pressured social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to censor content. EU threats may carry a lot of weight due to its history of harsh financial penalties for American tech companies. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, American tech companies that operate in the EU have been fined “over $30 billion” in recent years.
And the EU isn’t just looking to control what Europeans say on social media. Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton warned X owner Elon Musk about discussing certain topics during an interview with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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.
