Tag: eu

EU’s “Disinformation” Code Becomes Mandatory Under Censorship Law, Platforms Preemptively Enforce Rules Ahead of German Elections

The inevitable slide of the EU’s voluntary — at least in name — disinformation code (the 2022 version) into mandatory rules integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA) censorship law will become enforceable this July.

But just in time for Germany’s early elections, scheduled for the last week of February, large platforms – Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and X – participated in a “stress test” of their readiness to investigate risks to “civic discourse and electoral process” related to that vote.

This is taken by some reports to mean that although the voluntary code will become obligatory in the summer, the integration before February 23 in Germany means that platforms with more than 45 million users in the EU will implement “disinformation” rules, acting a “voluntary” basis one last time – in a bid “to avoid future legal risks.”

The election campaign in Germany has been marred by contentious attempts by those still in power to discredit and even censor the rising opposition. This is happening both through domestic institutions and by “delegating” some of such efforts to the EU.

The “stress test” done in late January and the reports around code integration timeline fit well in the overall trend. It was conducted by the European Commission and Germany’s digital services coordinator.

The code’s main purpose is to get signatories to step up content “moderation” – which critics see as code word for censorship, but which the EU, along with the DSA, explains as a way to combat illegal content and “protect users.”

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Sweden leads the offensive in the EU to curb financial support for the Cuban Regime.

The Swedish Government’s has taken the decision to review the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with the Cuban regime and cut funding to Havana.

The Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) between the European Union (EU) and Cuba was signed in 2016 and aimed to normalize and strengthen diplomatic and economic relations between the two parties. Its main objectives were to promote dialogue on political issues, human rights, and economic development while enhancing cooperation in areas like trade, investment, sustainable development, and governance.

However, Sweden insists that it is not a good idea to have European funds diverted to support a regime that tramples on human rights.

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PANIC IN BRUSSELS: Trump and Secretary Rubio Reportedly Ignoring the European Union, Focusing on Bilateral Relations with the Countries

US President Donald J. Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio are reportedly focusing on bilateral relations with some European countries, and totally ignoring the European Union in their early diplomatic moves.

But, come to think of it – why wouldn’t they?

The EU is pushing every losing, crippling Globalist agenda under the sun – from unchecked mass migration to the Net-zero obsession of the ‘Church of Global Warming’; from DEI nonsense to Transgenderism for children, to advancing a ‘forever war’ in Ukraine… Brussels is destroying their nations to obey the orders of the Globalist overlords.

In the words of old-time Trump ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: ‘The EU is a contemporary parody of the Soviet Union’.

The most prominent point of tension – but far from the only one – is the unfairness of the trade imbalance.

From Trump’s speech at the Davos WEF conference:

“From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly.

They make it very difficult to bring products into Europe, and yet they expect to be selling and they do sell their products in the United States. So, we have, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU, and nobody’s happy with it. And we’re going to do something about it.

They essentially don’t take our farm products and they don’t take our cars, yet they send cars to us by the millions. They put tariffs on things that we want to do … We have some very big complaints with the EU.”

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World Economic Forum Panel Praises EU Censorship Law

One of this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) panels brought together publishers, a French minister, and a UK think tank previously involved in US State Department-funded censorship of Americans, who praised the EU’s controversial Digital Services Act (DSA) while railing against “misinformation.”

French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology Clara Chappaz spoke about the DSA as a solution to the “problem” presented by free speech on the internet.

Chappaz and another speaker, the CEO of the UK think tank – the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) – defended the law as not being a censorship tool but “merely” making what is illegal offline also illegal online.

Yet the French official remarked that it requires platforms to introduce measures reducing “the systemic risks” tied to “misinformation.” And this ends up providing a mechanism for censorship of whatever the authorities decide to consider “misinformation.”

Chappaz also spoke about an age verification law that was introduced in France last week, the pretext being preventing minors from accessing adult sites.

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EU Updates Digital Rules Requiring Big Tech To Allow ‘Reporters’ To Monitor Hate Speech

Under a revised code of conduct on online speech, the European Commission says that Big Tech signatories need to allow a network of “monitoring reporters” to regularly monitor hate speech notices.

On Jan. 20, the European Commission announced that updated hate speech guidelines will be folded into the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA is an EU-wide regulation that regulates the obligations of digital services.

Part of this requires social media platforms to remove, and take other specified steps to deal with, what is deemed disinformation. The DSA fully came into force in 2024.

Under the revised code, companies that are signed up must allow a network of “monitoring reporters” that are nonprofit or public entities with expertise on illegal hate speech to regularly monitor how the signatories are reviewing hate speech notices.

They will have to review at least two-thirds of hate speech notices received from monitoring reporters within 24 hours.

The EU said that the updated code of conduct, a voluntary instrument, builds on a 2016 code on “countering illegal hate speech online.”

European Commission Spokesperson Thomas Regnier told The Epoch Times by email that Facebook, Instagram, and X are among the signatories of the new code of conduct. These platforms were also part of the previous code of conduct, initiated in 2016, he said.

It was also signed by Dailymotion,  Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft-hosted consumer services, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube.

The EU also wants signatories to present “country-level data broken down by the internal classification of hate speech (such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation).”

Some of the monitoring reporters include Amnesty International Italia, German organisation HateAid, and the French Ministry of the Interior’s dedicated portal to cybercrime, PHAROS.

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EU Demands Access to X’s Internal Algorithms

According to the German press, the EU is demanding what the reports phrase as “authority access” to X’s internal documents regarding the platform’s changes to its recommendations algorithms, and programming interfaces.

The bloc is doing that as it investigates possible “hate speech” and “disinformation” violations relevant to the censorship law, the Digital Services Act (DSA). The probe is supposed to determine whether X should be treated as “a risk.”

X has been given four weeks to comply with the provisions of the law, long-criticized by free speech advocates but pushed by the EU as a means to “create a fair, safe and democratic online environment” for citizens, as European Commission Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen put it.

And what that democracy looks like becomes clearer when the real reason behind the latest case of pressure on X is revealed: Germany’s (still) ruling politicians, Chancellor Olaf Scholz included, suspect that Elon Musk’s support for the opposition AfD might translate to X boosting the party’s content.

Germany will elect a new parliament in just over a month and the chaotic campaign there has produced a number of controversial and repressive moves, especially against the AfD and its supporters, often branded as “extreme right-wingers” with some of the party’s branches declared to be “extremist” by Germany’s domestic spy agency.

And yet, the party leads Scholz’s Social Democrats in the polls, and is second only to the Christian Democratic Union, which is also currently in opposition, making it highly likely that the complaints against X’s alleged preferential treatment of AfD have more to do with pure politics and less with “hate speech” and “disinformation.”

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Brussels Ramps up Investigation Into Elon Musk in First Salvo of Upcoming Transatlantic War Between the US and EU Over Free Speech and Online Censorship

The historic inauguration of Donald J. Trump as 47th US President will usher in a new Golden Age in America in many aspects, including free-speech.

But across the pond, a generation of failed Globalist ‘leaders’ is scrambling to counteract that, and keep things as they are in terms of online censorship to carry their political narratives alive.

So, yesterday (17) Brussels showed their intent to fully unleash its infamous Digital Services Act (DSA) against tech billionaire-turned-Trump trusted advisor Elon Musk.

The DSA has been demonstrated to be a new form of censorship in Europe, incompatible with real European values or the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Furthermore, CIA-linked Newsguard is mentioned to have being heavily involved in the implementation of the nefarious act.

Now, with Musk flexing his geopolitical muscles, ‘regulators’ in thew EU refused to scale down an investigation of social media network X.

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Former EU Official Admits That The EU Canceled The Romanian Election

While accusing Elon Musk of interfering in the upcoming German election, Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton said if the AfD (Alternative for Germany) were to win the election, the European Union could cancel the result just as they did in Romania.

Breton declared in Orwellian fashion that “Freedom of expression is a fundamental element in Europe,” and then he went on to give the example of Romania, where the elections on December 8 were annulled, suggesting that the same thing could happen in Germany. This is the first admission by a European leader that the election in Romania was cancelled at the behest of the European Union.

His admission contradicts the official narrative that the presidential election was stopped by the Romanian judiciary. “Let’s apply our laws in Europe when they risk being circumvented and when they can, if not applied, lead to interference. We did it in Romania and, obviously, we will have to do it, if necessary, in Germany,” Breton said.

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VACCINE PASSPORT STING OPERATION: More than 2,200 celebrities, officials and European elite caught with FAKE vaccination passports

Vaccination records in Europe have been falsified by thousands of celebrities, officials, and elitists who gave themselves saline injections instead of the deadly Covid mRNA jabs, then paid big bucks to have fake passports made and recorded in the records system there called the National Immunizations Registry. The elitists got busted in a sting operation the National Police ran called Operation Jenner.

Now some of these elitists, including Big Pharma CEOs and presidents, are facing criminal charges for it. The fee to falsify the passport and the records was higher depending on social status, so famous folks and Big Pharma gurus had to pay more money to avoid getting the deadliest “vaccine” ever created on planet earth. They obviously knew the hazards and wanted to avoid them at all costs.

Police have charged Jose Sousa-Faro, President of Pharma-Mar, a European pharma behemoth, for being falsely vaccinated against Covid-19. The National Police there have compiled a list of these offenders a mile long.

Anyone who doubts this is exactly what’s going on in the United States needs their head examined. Politicians, celebrities, and Pharma gurus who got “vaccinated” live on television, who didn’t pass out or die on the spot, most likely got a saline injection, just like all these elitists in Europe. It’s a scam because they KNOW how deadly those clot shot, gene therapy, nano-technology injections really are.

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Former European Commissioner and Wannabe Tyrant Thierry Breton Says EU May Cancel German Elections if Right-Wing AfD Wins

If you were scandalized by the European powers sweeping in to force Romania to cancel its Presidential Elections out of fear of right-winger Calin Georgescu, you better buckle up, according to former European Commissioner—and wannabe tyrant—Thierry Breton.

A Eurofanatic and enthusiast for censorship online, Breton had to resign from the EU after unsuccessfully trying to keep the Elon Musk/Donald Trump podcast from being broadcast.

In an interview on Thursday, Breton said that Elon Musk’s ‘interference’ in the upcoming elections in Germany ‘could lead to a cancellation of the election results.’

CNews reported (translated from the French):

“This interference is also worrying European leaders. While the results of the first round of the Romanian presidential election have been annulled against a backdrop of Russian interference, the threat of Elon Musk intervening in favor of the AfD in Germany raises fears of the worst.”

Breton said that freedom of speech is a ‘fundamental element’ in Europe, commenting on Musk podcast with Alice Weidel on X – but…

“Thierry Breton nevertheless called for keeping calm in the face of this situation that is developing in Germany, mentioning the example of Romania. ‘Let’s enforce our laws in Europe when they are likely to be circumvented and if they are not enforced can lead to interference. We did it in Romania and it will obviously have to be done, if necessary, in Germany’, he concluded.”

There we have it – he ‘calmly’ suggests overriding the popular vote in Germany if it does not fit his Globalist point of view.

“’From the moment it is broadcast in Europe with a regulated platform, Elon Musk has to follow European rules. With the AfD, we have to follow them. It is obvious that we will take all measures to ensure that he respects the law. If he does not respect it, there are fines and the possibility of ban’, he continued, recalling that Elon Musk must comply with European rules.”

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