“The dark night of fascism always falls on America, but only on Europe.”
This is a quote from the writer Tom Wolfe in the 1970s, and he was talking about this strange dynamic where we hear over and over again from left-wing pundits and the media that America is on the brink of fascism, but then we end up with tyranny in Europe.
Tyranny seems to be descending upon Europe again, and unfortunately, in the globalized and interconnected world of the 21st century, there is no guarantee that it won't also descend upon Europe.
As Titus Techera, executive director of the Motion Picture Foundation of America, wrote in Law & Liberty on Friday, social media has become “the third wave of journalism.” The technology has allowed ordinary citizens and nontraditional journalists to circumvent the system and report stories that might otherwise get buried because they don't fit the preferred narrative.
But our various interconnected institutions are fighting back, working with the private sector and nonprofits to increasingly use government power to crack down on disapproved news and opinions.
That appeared to be the case over the weekend, when French authorities arrested Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging app Telegram, outside Paris airport on Saturday.
According to NBC News, French prosecutors cited “conspiracy” in facilitating a range of illegal activities, including fraud, soliciting the sale of illegal drugs, and 11 other charges that could be applied to most other social media platforms.
French President Emmanuel Macron said there was a lot of misinformation spreading about Durov's arrest and insisted that France remained “deeply committed” to freedom of expression despite the appearance of political motivation.
“The arrest of the president of Telegram in France comes as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” Macron said in a statement posted, ironically, on another social media platform, X. “This is by no means a political decision. It is the judge who will rule on this matter.”
After the arrest of Pavel Durov, we came across some misinformation about France.
France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, innovation and entrepreneurship – and this will continue to be the case.
In a nation governed by the rule of law,…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 26, 2024
Frankly, when European leaders shout about their support for free speech, it's as implausible as when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted former President Donald Trump for clearly political reasons (while acquitting all manner of criminals), claims that no one is “above the law.”
There may be some merit to the allegations against Telegram — certainly there are serious issues with child pornography and other horrible things facilitated by social media — but it's hard not to see this as just another escalation in what has been a relentless assault on free speech in one European country after another in recent months.
Earlier this month, the British government began arresting citizens for posting memes on social media.
It was a response to protests and riots that broke out in Southport, Merseyside, after the 17-year-old son of a Rwandan immigrant allegedly stabbed three girls to death and injured 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop on July 29.
Not content with suppressing their own people, the British reached out “across the ocean” and attempted to silence the Americans as well.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner issued a threat to those posting the memes overseas.
“We will use the full force of the law. Whether you're committing a crime on the streets of this country or far away online, we will hunt you down,” Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said in an interview with Sky News.
Thank you to George Washington and the Continental Army, and to the Framers of the Constitution who included the First Amendment to explicitly protect our right to free speech.
We should be grateful to the patriots of 1776, but the European Union and European censorship regimes still try to interfere in our country and stifle speech.
Amid the protests in the UK, a former Twitter executive argued in the Guardian that Twitter CEO Elon Musk should be threatened with arrest if he doesn't moderate speech on the company's platform.
EU officials have shown a willingness to comply.
Thierry Breton, a French politician and senior EU official with a “deep commitment” to freedom of expression, threatened to refer Musk to the EU Commission using the Digital Services Act.
The bigger the audience, the bigger the responsibility #DSA
I am writing this letter due to the risk of disseminating potentially harmful content from ?? in connection with events with large audiences around the world. Elon Musk
??? pic.twitter.com/P1IgxdPLzn
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) August 12, 2024
Musk basically told Breton to cave in. Various free speech groups have denounced Breton, and even other EU officials have said he never got permission to send the letter. Even Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who represents part of California's Silicon Valley, came out in support of Musk and free speech. Good for Musk.
In America, we value freedom of speech, including conversations like this: Elon Musk Tonight we're going to talk about ideas and opinions that people may dislike or find offensive. We won't censor them. Ironically, this was a European idea once put forward by a man named John Stuart Mill. https://t.co/hi449AVSTq
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 13, 2024
But that doesn't mean the threat wasn't real.
European countries lack a First Amendment and clearly have little interest in protecting freedom of speech. The shallow rhetoric of their politicians means little in the face of authoritarian actions by governments that increasingly resemble the purer tyrannies of Russia and China.
Unfortunately, many in power in America's increasingly ideologically dominated institutions apparently find the European approach to threatening speech in the name of “tolerance” very appealing.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a witness at the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, also seemed ecstatic at the thought of Musk being persecuted.
After his arrest, Durov warned Musk that he could be next.
“Durov is a French citizen and was arrested for violating French law, which has far-reaching implications for other social media platforms, including Twitter,” Vindman wrote on X. “There is growing intolerance for the spread of disinformation and malign influence, and a growing desire for accountability. Musk should be nervous.”
Ah, yes, accountability.
When Alexander Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned in a gulag for questioning the Soviet regime, wasn't it simply satisfying a desire for accountability?
Keep in mind that the powerful bureaucracies in Washington are filled with people like Vindman. If they could use government to suppress speech they don't like, don't you think they would refrain?
If you think it's impossible that the federal government wouldn't arrest and jail someone for posting a meme, it's already happened.
Will the Biden-Harris administration apply diplomatic pressure to protect domestic political opponents from the threat of censorship abroad? They seem happy to use it here.
Western Europe is rapidly moving toward tyranny, and this is certainly a frightening warning. I am grateful for the First Amendment, but this Constitution, which founder James Madison called a “parchment barrier,” is only as strong as the people and organizations committed to defending and maintaining it.
The Constitution may buy us time, but the ultimate fusion of American-style wokeness and European-style censorship, if not prevented, will mean the end of freedom in the West.
