Tag: eu

EU targets platforms that refuse to censor free speech – Telegram founder

The EU is unfairly targeting social media platforms that allow dissenting or critical speech, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has said.

He was responding to a 2024 post by Elon Musk, the owner of X, who claimed that the European Commission had offered the platform a secret deal to avoid fines in return for censoring certain statements. The EU fined X €120 million ($140 million) the day before.

According to Durov, the EU imposes strict and unrealistic rules on tech companies as a way to punish those that do not comply with quiet censorship demands.

“The EU imposes impossible rules so it can punish tech firms that refuse to silently censor free speech,” Durov wrote on X on Saturday.

He also referred to his detention in France last year, which he called politically motivated. He claimed that during that time, the head of France’s DGSE asked him to “ban conservative voices in Romania” ahead of an election, an allegation French officials denied. He also said intelligence agents offered help with his case if Telegram quietly removed channels tied to Moldova’s election.

Durov repeated both claims in his recent post, describing the case as “a baseless criminal investigation” followed by pressure to censor speech in Romania and Moldova.

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US accuses EU of ‘attack on American people’ after fine on X

The US has accused Brussels of an “attack” on Americans after the EU fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X €120 million ($140 million) for violating the bloc’s content-moderation rules.

The European Commission announced the decision on Friday, noting that it is the first time a formal non-compliance ruling has been issued under the Digital Services Act.

The move comes amid a broader wave of enforcement against major American tech companies. Brussels previously imposed multibillion-euro penalties on Google for abuses in search and advertising, fined Apple under both the Digital Markets Act and national antitrust rules, and penalized Meta for its “pay-or-consent” ad model. Such actions have sharpened disagreements between the US and the EU over digital regulation.

According to the Commission, X’s violations include the deceptive design of its blue checkmark system, which “exposes users to scams,” insufficient transparency in its advertising library, and its failure to provide required access to public data for researchers.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed the decision, writing on X that it is not just an attack on the platform, but “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.” 

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Top ex-EU diplomat Federica Mogherini accused of corruption and fraud

The EU’s former chief diplomat Federica Mogherini and two other people have been formally accused of fraud and corruption, the European prosecutor’s office has said.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) did not refer to Mogherini by name, but said the rector of the College of Europe in Bruges – her role – had been formally notified of the accusations. A senior staff member of the college and a senior official from the European Commission were also indicted, the EPPO said, after all three were questioned by Belgian police.

The investigation, which led to police raids on the headquarters of the EU foreign service in Brussels and the elite College of Europe postgraduate school, as well as Mogherini’s home, has deeply shocked EU insiders. Prosecutors suspect fraud in the tender for a contract to run a training academy for young diplomats, which was awarded to the College of Europe by the EU foreign service.

The EPPO, the EU agency in charge of prosecuting fraud involving European funds, said the accusations concerned “procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy”. It added: “All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law.”

All three have been released “as they are not considered a flight risk”, the EPPO said.

On Wednesday, Mogherini issued a statement via the College of Europe. “In its long tradition, the College has always applied and will continue to apply the highest standards of integrity and fairness,” she said. “I have full confidence in the justice system and I trust that the correctness of the College’s actions will be ascertained.”

The College of Europe has said it would cooperate fully with the authorities “in the interest of transparency and respect for the investigative process”.

In a letter to staff seen by the Guardian, the EU’s current foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the allegations were “deeply shocking but should in no way tarnish the good work that the vast majority of you are doing every day”.

Kallas, who is one year into a five year mandate, said integrity and accountability “will only improve under my watch” and that the current process showed “safeguards are in place and working”.

One of the accused is understood to be Stefano Sannino, a senior commission official, who was secretary general of the European External Action Service from 2021 to 2024. A request for comment sent to him was referred to the commission, which declined beyond saying it was co-operating with an investigation into activities that took place before the term of the current EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.

Mogherini was the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs from 2014 to 2019, after a brief stint as Italy’s foreign minister. She went on to become rector of the College of Europe, a training ground for European officials and politicians. Her appointment in 2020 proved controversial, with some alumni arguing she lacked academic credentials and experience of running a major academic institution.

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“We Must Protect Volodymyr”: Leaked Call Shows European Leaders Conspiring Against Trump Peace Plan

In a development that is not entirely surprising, European leaders are claiming that Washington is looking to “betray” Ukraine and President Zelensky during potential formal peace negotiations with Russia. “There is a possibility that the United States will abandon Ukraine on territorial questions without providing clarity on security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said according to a “leaked” phone call record with other European leaders.

Likely this was an intentional leak and bit of strong signaling to the Trump administration, as Europe has not been on board with the US President’s proposed peace plan from the start. “There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees,” Macron continued. He laid his view that there was “a great danger” for Zelensky. However, Macron’s office has subsequently sought to clarify that “The president did not use those words.”

The leaked transcript of the call between European leaders strategizing about how to protect the Zelensky government and Kiev’s interests was published Thursday by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Also reportedly on the line engaged in the conversation were German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and of course Zelensky as well.

Merz had in the dialogue agreed that Zelensky should be “extremely careful in the coming days” and warned the Ukrainian leader that “they are playing games with you and with us.”

Finland’s President Stubb followed with, “We must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these people” – after NATO Secretary General Rutte chimed in: “I agree with Alexander. We must protect Volodymyr.” The underlying assumption seems to be that Zelensky is in a weak position and is being bullied by the more powerful US officials who have leverage.

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EU Directs Hundreds of BILLIONS to Ukraine in Latest Plan

According to Ursula von der Leyen’s options paper provided to member states on October 23, Ukraine will need €71.7 billion ($83.2 billion) in 2026. An estimated €51.6 billion ($59.9 billion) will go directly to military needs. The estimate is based on the false assumption that the war will end next year. The price tag for funding Ukraine through 2027 is €135.7 billion on the low end.

The majority will be funneled through the EU’s Ukraine Facility mechanism. “It will now be key to rapidly reach a clear commitment on how to ensure that the necessary funding for Ukraine will be agreed at the next European Council meeting in December,” the European Commission President wrote to the 27 member states. “Clearly, there are no easy options.”

Ursula is not prepared to accept the peace plan. There IS AN OPTION to end this war, but the neocons are currently refusing to surrender. Trump must use America’s NATO status as leverage—end the war or the US will pull out.

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EU Push to Make Message Scanning Permanent Despite Evidence of Failure and Privacy Risks

The European Union has a habit of turning its worst temporary ideas into permanent fixtures. This time it is “Chat Control 1.0,” the 2021 law that lets tech companies scan everyone’s private messages in the name of child protection.

It was supposed to be a stopgap measure, a temporary derogation of privacy rights until proper evidence came in.

Now, if you’ve been following our previous reporting, you’ll know the Council wants to make it permanent, even though the Commission’s own 2025 evaluation report admits it has no evidence the thing actually works.

We obtained a copy of the report for you here.

The report doesn’t even hide the chaos. It confesses to missing data, unproven results, and error rates that would embarrass a basic software experiment.

Yet its conclusion jumps from “available data are insufficient” to “there are no indications that the derogation is not proportionate.” That is bureaucratic logic at its blandest.

The Commission’s Section 3 conclusion includes the sentence “the available data are insufficient to provide a definitive answer” on proportionality, followed immediately by “there are no indications that the derogation is not proportionate.”

In plain language, they can’t prove the policy isn’t violating rights, but since they can’t prove that it is, they will treat it as acceptable.

The same report admits it can’t even connect the dots between all that scanning and any convictions. Section 2.2.3 states: “It is not currently possible…to establish a clear link between these convictions and the reports submitted by providers.” Germany and Spain didn’t provide usable figures.

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European Parliament agrees on resolution calling for minimum age on social media

The European Parliament on Wednesday agreed on a resolution which calls for a default minimum age of 16 on social media to ensure “age-appropriate online engagement”.

According to a draft published in October, the legislation asked for “the establishment of a harmonised European digital age limit of 16 years old as the default threshold under which access to online social media platforms should not be allowed unless parents or guardians have authorised their children otherwise”.

It also called for a harmonised European digital age limit of 13, under which no minor could access social media platforms, and an age limit of 13 for video-sharing services and “AI companions”.

The Parliament resolution is not legally binding and does not set policy.

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Poland Resists EU Court Order To Recognize Same-Sex Marriage

Poland’s government and leading opposition figures have publicly pushed back against suggestions that the European Union can compel Warsaw to recognize same-sex marriages, despite a landmark ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) requiring Poland to acknowledge a marriage legally concluded in another member state.

Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński insisted on Wednesday that this week’s judgment does not equate to Brussels overruling Polish sovereignty.

“Since yesterday, many untruths have accumulated in this matter. Interpretations are already emerging that say: the EU is imposing its legislation on us. So no – it cannot impose its legislation on us,” he said, adding that the judgment alone “cannot force a change in Polish law in this regard.”

He stated that the government will outline how the ruling will be handled only “after thorough analyses by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice.”

The ruling — issued on Tuesday by the EU’s top court — found that Poland acted incompatibly with EU law when it refused to recognize the marriage of two Polish men who married in Berlin in 2018 and sought legal recognition upon returning home.

The CJEU held that while marriage legislation remains a national competency, a member state cannot obstruct EU citizens’ freedom to move and maintain family life across borders.

The judges concluded that denying recognition “may cause serious inconvenience at administrative, professional, and private levels” and would breach both free movement rights and the right to family life, enshrined in the European treaties and human rights legislation.

The judgment stopped short of requiring Poland to legalize same-sex marriage domestically, but it does obligate Warsaw to treat foreign same-sex marriages the same way it treats opposite-sex marriages for the purpose of recognition.

Under current law, transcription of foreign marriage certificates is the sole method for acknowledgment — a system the court said must now apply equally to same-sex couples. The move opens the door to same-sex couples in Poland, knowing they can return and insist upon the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Political fallout was immediate. President Karol Nawrocki, who has repeatedly taken a hard line against perceived EU overreach and is framed as a Eurosceptic within the Polish political landscape, was publicly defended by Przemysław Czarnek, deputy chairman of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, who said Poland should not be expected to accept every directive from the EU.

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EU Parliament Votes for Mandatory Digital ID and Age Verification, Threatening Online Privacy

The European Parliament has voted to push the European Union closer to a mandatory digital identification system for online activity, approving a non-binding resolution that endorses EU-wide age verification rules for social media, video platforms, and AI chatbots.

Though presented as a child protection measure, the text strongly promotes the infrastructure for universal digital ID, including the planned EU Digital Identity Wallet and an age verification app being developed by the European Commission.

Under the proposal, every user would have to re-identify themselves at least once every three months to continue using major platforms. Children under 13 would be banned entirely, and teenagers between 13 and 16 would require parental approval to participate online.

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EU Council Approves New “Chat Control” Mandate Pushing Mass Surveillance

European governments have taken another step toward reviving the EU’s controversial Chat Control agenda, approving a new negotiating mandate for the Child Sexual Abuse Regulation in a closed session of the Council of the European Union on November 26.

The measure, presented as a tool for child protection, is once again drawing heavy criticism for its surveillance implications and the way it reshapes private digital communication in Europe.

Unlike earlier drafts, this version drops the explicit obligation for companies to scan all private messages but quietly introduces what opponents describe as an indirect system of pressure.

It rewards or penalizes online services depending on whether they agree to carry out “voluntary” scanning, effectively making intrusive monitoring a business expectation rather than a legal requirement.

Former MEP Patrick Breyer, a long-standing defender of digital freedom and one of the most vocal opponents of the plan, said the deal “paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance.”

According to him, the Council’s text replaces legal compulsion with financial and regulatory incentives that push major US technology firms toward indiscriminate scanning.

He warned that the framework also brings “anonymity-breaking age checks” that will turn ordinary online use into an exercise in identity verification.

The new proposal, brokered largely through Danish mediation, comes months after the original “Chat Control 1.0” regulation appeared to have been shelved following widespread backlash.

It reinstates many of the same principles, requiring providers to assess their potential “risk” for child abuse content and to apply “mitigation measures” approved by authorities. In practice, that could mean pressure to install scanning tools that probe both encrypted and unencrypted communications.

Czech MEP Markéta Gregorová called the Council’s position “a disappointment…Chat Control…opens the way to blanket scanning of our messages.”

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