The EU is on a mission to control information

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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks with Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, during the Ira C. Eaker Distinguished Speaker Presentation in the Academy's Arnold Hall on April 7, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Air Force photo by Trevor cokley)

By Maaike van Charante

The EU is increasingly behaving like a superstate with totalitarian traits – including censorship – and it desperately needs a change of course.

Increasingly, we are witnessing the totalitarian tendencies of the European Union. What once started as pragmatic cooperation between European countries has increasingly degenerated into a walhalla for lobbyists and power-hungry politicians.

To be clear: politicians from EU member states are the cause of this. They undermine national sovereignty because they apparently prefer to belong to – and make a career in – a world power. This despite the fact that Europe became great thanks to the diversity and mutual rivalry of all those unique states. A rivalry that would remain peaceful in true democracies.

Nationalism

Fanatical supporters of the EU like to proclaim that nationalism is xenophobic and that it will inevitably lead to war. They pull a dirty face at national flags and national anthems. However, it is telling how differently they react to the EU flag and the song the EU has appropriated as its anthem. Then, sentiment suddenly rears its head.

Typical is the call for a ‘strong’ Europe. Politicians are increasingly openly pushing for a European army – for these people, Europe equals the EU – and it is now quite common for unelected leaders like Ursula von der Leyen to express aggressive language towards Russia. Unfortunately, it is also common to read articles full of praise about such politicians in our media.

Promoting the EU

A good example of this was a December 2022 article in  De Volkskrant. It did mention Ursula’s mission creep – that is, the EU Commission’s creeping expansion of power at the expense of member states – but however negative this notion is in essence, the tone of the piece remained admiring. Establishment media continue to promote the derailing EU.

Don’t underestimate the indoctrination in favour of the EU. Do you have school-aged children? Check their schoolbooks for fun. You will find EU propaganda in all kinds of subjects; you will look in vain for criticism. For this reason alone, I strongly support the new Dutch government coalition’s intention to make school textbooks politically neutral.

Censorship

The totalitarian traits of the current EU leadership are most evident in their persistent attempts to gain control of information. Rule 1 of any dictatorship: silence dissident voices. Of course, in the EU, this is not called censorship, well no. This is called the fight against disinformation. Everything serves only to protect the gullible citizen from being misled.

We are presented with a narrative in which the EU in all its wisdom decides what is true and what is not, and then benevolently protects us from disinformation. In March 2022, this even culminated in the blunt banning of Russian propaganda channels Russia Today and Sputnik, a decision that also raised eyebrows in mainstream media.

But where the blunt censorship of March 2022 still led to criticism from all sides, other censorship attempts can often count on (tacit) approval from the establishment. In January 2018, the European Commission set up a new Fake News Task Force with 40 European media experts, thanks in part to D66 minister Kajsa Ollongren.

Less than a week later, we were introduced to EU vs Disinfo, part of an even older task force that appeared to have been set up back in 2015 to combat disinformation from Russia. This little club made a fool of itself by labelling genuine news (which was patently real) as “disinformation”. EU vs Disinfo seemed hopeless, but it would be naive to think it would stop there.

Internet censorship

Since the TwitterFiles came out, we know how much pressure the US government puts on social media platforms to censor unwelcome news. Unfortunately, (US) investigative journalists working on this are mainly interested in the US government. Yet, it is clear that the European Union is not averse to such influence either.

Significant was EU Commissioner Thierry Breton’s reaction after Elon Musk (picture) succeeded in taking over Twitter, promising to protect freedom on this platform. Breton immediately made it clear that freedom on Twitter was not wanted: the EU wanted to determine what rules information should comply with.

The “Lab Leak” Theory

Breton’s response came as no surprise after the censorship of the internet in corona times. The TwitterFiles showed that doubts about vaccines were actively suppressed, and that was not the only thing. One of the topics that was not allowed to be discussed was the theory that the virus might have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Back in February 2020, a statement by scientists appeared in The Lancet stating that this theory was a conspiracy theory, and under pressure from virologists, the theory was censored on social media. Scientists have since come up with evidence that the virus originated from a market in Wuhan, but it is not very convincing.

First, these scientists came up with their conclusion long before they had any evidence. Second, they had a direct interest in ensuring that the virus did not come from a lab – their contacts and their research were at risk – and third, censorship does not exactly indicate a desire to find the truth. And yet this directly affects every citizen in the world.

It is an oft-repeated phenomenon: once people have power, they primarily protect that power. And in this so-called information age, control over information is then crucial. This played out during the corona pandemic, it plays out in the Ukraine crisis, and it also plays out in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The EU immediately made that clear.

7 October

On 7 October 2023, Twitter was flooded with images of Hamas’ atrocities. Both terrorists and civilians had posted videos and photos on the internet that soon went viral, and in the chaos of those first days, Twitter was a major news source. Many links to such tweets can still be found in GeenStijl’ s first live blogs about that pogrom.

After 7 October, stories about these atrocities were questioned. Israel would have exaggerated things, would have even fabricated crimes, would have actually killed its own citizens. The tweets of those early days are the still-existing testimonies of what really happened. But this unregulated information was unwelcome to the EU.

On 10 October 2023, Thierry Breton sent a threatening letter to Elon Musk. He reminded him of the Digital Services Act, a new EU regulation to regulate online information. Breton accused Musk of spreading disinformation after 7 October, but refused – even after a request to do so from Musk – to say what the violations were.

In December 2023, the European Commission launched an official investigation into the matter and that investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen heads into the EU elections with the video below. It’s the same tune again: to protect gullible European citizens from the enemies of democracy, the noble EU is going to detect and remove disinformation.

Power corrupts

Itt is pure manipulation to pretend that censorship is a means to protect the powerless. Censorship is the weapon of the powerful, silencing the powerless. Only those in power have the ability to censor, and their highest goal is invariably to prevent their narrative from being challenged, to prevent their power from being challenged.

Those who want to put the control of information in the hands of the EU after Ukraine, corona and 7 October may think again. Those who want to put the control of information in the hands of anyone may think again about this. It is not as if other politicians or political groups could be trusted with this power.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We see it with the EU, we see it with our old establishment, it is a human thing. The only medicine against derailment is a healthy democracy in which fundamental rights are sacrosanct. Fundamental rights like freedom of speech and freedom of information. In such a democracy, dissidents can always rise up to denounce abuses.

Another aspect of such a healthy democracy is that there is a regular peaceful change of power. This prevents the incumbent power from petrifying and acquiring totalitarian traits. We are currently seeing in the Netherlands how bad our democracy is in a situation where a change of power has to take place and the incumbent is fighting tooth and nail.

Change

During the European Parliament elections, voters have shifted towards a more conservative, down-to-earth direction. What we need is a change of power in Brussels, to curb the totalitarian tendencies of the current European Commission, and strengthen the sovereignty of member states.

For the new coalition in the Netherlands, a more right-wing course in the EU will also be an encouragement. Dutch farmers party BBB in particular has already made it clear that the new government will stand up more for the interests of the Dutch; that the Netherlands will no longer be the good net contributor with no dissenting voice. The more level-headedness in Brussels, the more likely the Netherlands will be heard there.

 

Originally published in Dutch at OpinieZ.com

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