The episode that shook one of the most important voices of the conservative Catholic world in Italy during the summer of 2025—namely, the blog Messainlatino.it—remains one of the most eloquent signs of the ethical fragilities afflicting today’s digital ecosystem. The blog was taken offline for twelve days by Google-Blogger under the generic accusation of ‘hate speech.’ It was deprived, without prior notice, of its public space, despite the editors’ attention and care in balancing full conformity of the content with Catholic doctrine and the utmost respect owed to individuals.
The sudden removal—occurring after the publication of a letter by Bishop Strickland against the female diaconate, following a series of reports and amid the already tense climate after the revelations concerning the Summorum Pontificum dossier—highlighted how easily an algorithm can become an instrument of unjust censorship, especially when quantitative judgment prevails over the assessment of facts. europeanconservative.com covered the matter here.
Today, however, the scenario has changed. After three months of legal battle, the site’s curators fully prevailed in court: Google was found responsible for violating the editors’ freedom of expression and religion, and has been condemned to pay legal expenses, thus opening a new chapter in the protection of confessional content online. This victory not only restores honor to a voice faithful to Catholic tradition, but also marks the beginning of broader developments, destined to affect the relationship between digital platforms and Christian communities that wish to serve the truth with frankness.
It must not be forgotten that the case of MiL is not an exception, nor a marginal quarrel born of a dubious post, but rather the symptom of a broader flaw in a censorial system entirely delegated to an algorithm by a Big Tech company, almost by definition depersonalized. It is no coincidence that this unjust censorship was denounced both at the national level, through a parliamentary question by Italian MP Maddalena Morgante, and at the European level, through a similar question by Italian MEP Paolo Inselvini.
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