Despite Big Tech’s harsh COVID-19 censorship, the European Parliament apparently decided it wasn’t enough.
The European Parliament released clips of its January 30 meeting in a video titled: “The impact of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda on democracy during the pandemic: extracts from the public hearing.” The video did not show members of parliament presenting many solutions. Instead, the clips depicted them complaining about supposed “misinformation” and “disinformation” that had been allowed online and in other public forums.
One medical professional, Jutta Paulus, even whined that medical professionals were not “communication experts” trained to propagandize patients into “compliance” with prescribed medical treatments.
French Socialist Raphael Glucksmann was verbose on the supposed threat of “disinformation” to democracy. “We should not try to forbid opinions,” he began, but quickly added, “what we should do for sure is to make sure that people can form their own opinion without being subject to foreign interference and foreign regime, autocratic ones … [making] our democracy dysfunctional.”
“This is precisely why American tech giants should not look to Europe or other nations throughout the world for answers on how to handle online speech,” said MRC Free Speech America and MRC Business Director Michael Morris. “European leaders can’t seem to help but call for more censorship because their nations were not grounded in the fundamental natural law liberties we have here in America. If Big Tech companies truly seek to be advocates for free speech online, then they should look no further than the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and mirror its principles. For tech giants to suggest anything less would be nothing but empty platitudes.”
Ironically, while condemning other nations for restricting speech, Glucksmann argued for unspecified action against supposed “cyber attacks” and “lies,” which he deemed efforts to convince people “that democracy is not working and that our institutions are to be blamed for whatever happens in our societies.” The Twitter Files and Facebook Files have highlighted exactly why Americans and Europeans don’t trust their governments and institutions, but Glucksmann appeared unaware of the obvious.
British MP Edward Lucas brought up the consistent leftist cry of alleged Russian disinformation, but he also called out Chinese Communist Party-tied TikTok. “China has a sharp power strategy that also involves weaponizing information,” he said, citing Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat as examples. He advised building up people’s “mental and cultural muscles” to identify so-called misinformation. Lucas also suggested the need to “bake in media literacy” to education and public messaging.
Glucksmann opened and concluded the montage. He seemed to try to justify censorship by framing those who even questioned the COVID-19 vaccines as conspiracy theorists, despite the fact that now even governmental agencies like the U.S. Center for Disease Control are acknowledging some serious side effects. “Hundreds of thousands or millions of our fellow citizens believe that the earth is flat or that the vaccine gives you the 5G in your arm, [and] then it becomes our problem as legislators,” Glucksmann insisted.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that government agencies be held to account to uphold the First Amendment. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.