I thought it was bad that the European Union was threatening to impose a fine of 6% of revenue if a social media company didn't comply with the Digital Services Act. 

You know, the law that was used to threaten Twitter with fines if Elon Musk interviewed Donald Trump on Twitter/X. 

Not happy with Elon's snubbing of the EU's threats, the transnational tyranny upped the ante by threatening to levy the fine not just against Twitter/X but every company Elon Musk has partial ownership in. SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, Neuralink...you know, every innovative company in his stable of companies. They may be separate legal entities, but legality is now out the window if you anger the totalitarians. 

This is how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimpering, overpaid, underworked bureaucrat who can't handle the truth.

— JC (@cunninghamjeff) October 17, 2024

Brazil famously shut off Twitter/X because Elon allowed critics of the leftist government to say their piece. It is a threat to democracy itself if people can dissent, so any channel through which dissenters could express a divergent opinion must be silenced. 

How else can you protect freedom if not by shutting people up?

Now Ireland is upping the ante on the European Union by threatening to fine companies up to 10% of revenues if they allow speech unapproved by the ruling clique. 

Despite no democratic mandate, content that is legal under Irish & EU law must be suppressed under @CNaM_ie's new Online Safety Code.

Platforms risk fines of 10% of global annual turnover if they fail to comply, so they may err on the side of censorship.https://t.co/wf6gdkwJxF

— Free Speech Ireland (@FreeSpeechIre) October 21, 2024

Fines of 10% of annual revenue. For allowing people to say anything the Ministry of Truth disapproves of. 

Ireland has announced a swathe of online speech controls that will be applicable across the European Union as a result of the bloc’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

Unveiled on October 21, the Online Safety Code — a document drawn up by the country’s Coimisiún na Meán media regulator — applies across the EU for platforms that have their bloc headquarters based in the country. That list includes X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit and several others.

Under the edict — which does not need to be voted upon by the country’s parliament — social media platforms will be legally required to restrict user-generated and commercial content considered to incite “hatred”, even in situations where such content is not illegal under Irish or EU law.

I'm not joking about that last part. Companies can be fined for allowing content that is legal but unapproved by bureaucrats to be seen anywhere in the European Union. 

I'm not even sure what to say, except that we should abandon Europe to the totalitarians. I don't recognize any country West of Poland to be recognizably Western anymore, with the possible exception of Italy. 

Platforms that fail to obey the new rules, once they come into force, risk fines of up to €20 million or 10 per cent of their global annual turnover, whichever is higher.

Coimisiún na Meán clarified that the new rules would start coming into effect in November, with a full implementation set to be in force by mid-2025. It added that the rules would be enforced alongside the EU’s Digital Services Act.

It's unclear to me whether Ireland's fines will be imposed on top of the EU's, although I assume they will be. Perhaps every country in the world should get in line to take a cut of the revenue of Twitter/X, although that really isn't the point. The point is to assert totalitarian control over every single thing that could be said by anyone the regime doesn't like. 

Don't worry, though. I am certain that Europe will be fine with hating on the Jews. There is always an exception for attacking Jews. You wouldn't want to offend all those Hamas supporters who fill the streets of Europe's cities. 

COMMENT: The USA has the First Amendment, the EU has @ElonMusk. Is he up for the fight against the draconian Digital Services Act? asks Karl Pfefferkorn. https://t.co/BrrVTLCuDb

— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 3, 2024

One of the many reasons we must vote as if our freedom depends on it is that the Biden/Harris administration is egging on this speech clampdown. Trump, on the other hand, will tell Europe to pound sand. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that Western European countries now present a greater threat to the freedoms of Americans than Russia does. This is not a defense of Russia--Putin is a thug. It's just that Putin has no leverage over us, and as long as we allow ourselves to be bullied by countries that are essentially our client states--after all, we defend them, not the other way around!--totalitarians are ruling Americans in a parliament over which we have no control and whom we never voted on. 

If Europeans want to emulate North Korea, that is their business, I suppose. But if so, we should treat them like North Korea and impose sanctions, pull our troops out of their countries, and treat them like opponents and not allies. 

Europe is shrinking as a world power. It now leads the world in regulation and trails in innovation. 

I would really like to say something positive about Europe‘s economy, but it’s simply a train wreck in slow motion.

Overregulation, bureaucracy and lack of innovation have their price. Europe will either wake up, or keep becoming poorer compared to others. pic.twitter.com/9Mt9bKuwmd

— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) September 27, 2024

All they have left is bureaucracy and petulance. 

During the Cold War, I was a NATO cheerleader. After, I still thought it was a good thing. 

Now, I think it is as useful as the United Nations.