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The EU’s Ministry of Truth Threatens Google, Twitter, and Facebook

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44 comments on The EU’s Ministry of Truth Threatens Google, Twitter, and Facebook

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Stress Test for Truth Coming Up

The Enforcer is coming after US technology companies demanding a stress test on the truth. No, this isn’t The Onion.

Politico reports EU’s Breton Wants to ‘Stress Test’ Silicon Valley Giants.

LULEÅ, Sweden — The European Union’s Thierry Breton wants Big Tech to know that he’s “the enforcer.”

The internal market commissioner will travel to California next month to carry out “stress tests” to see how social media companies are preparing for new content rules, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The French politician told POLITICO that he and European Commission officials would meet with Google, Twitter and Meta Platforms during his trip to the United States, most likely during the week of June 19. At least some of those companies would participate in the informal checks to see if they are ready for the new rules, which come into force in August, and carry fines of up to 6 percent of a firm’s annual revenue.

“We are going there, but don’t want to be vocal before because I don’t want to speak too much. But we offer this and I’m happy that some platforms took our proposal,” Breton said of the non-binding compliance checks. “I am the enforcer. I represent the law, which is the will of the state and the people.”

“It’s a voluntary basis, so we don’t force anyone” to join the code of practice on disinformation, Breton said. “I just reminded (Musk and Twitter) that by August 25, it will become a legal obligation to fight disinformation.“

A Legal Obligation to Fight Disinformation

Say what?!

And who gets to decide the truth? Hunter Biden? Joe Biden? Dr. Anthony Fauci? Hillary Clinton and her totally discredited Russia campaign?

I guess the answer of the day is Thierry Breton. As “The Enforcer”, he is apparently in a unique position to understand the truth about everything. 

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Are we really at the shocking point where US corporations are forced to listen to French politicians who get to tramp on the US constitution, with their determination of “The Truth”?

Big tech should tell the EU to go to hell. Ironically, that is what the EU should do with Biden’s sanctions on anything and everything. 

It’s a sad day when US corporations take marching orders from EU politicians on what constitutes “the truth”. 

And where the hell is Biden on objecting to this?

This post originated on MishTalk.Com.

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44 Comments
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StukiMoi
StukiMoi
3 years ago
“it will become a legal obligation to fight disinformation.“
Translated: Those too dumb to have any hope of ever discerning the difference, will be “legally obligated”, or those even dumber can “sue” them, to only spread the disinformation the dumbest Frenchie of them is dumb enough to fall for.
Wouldn’t be The DumbAge if it wasn’t dumb!
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FromBrussels
FromBrussels
3 years ago
Yes , like the truth being , among other bs, that Covid would destroy mankind, that the vaxxines were safe and effective and that Russia attacked Ukraine unprovokedly …. just to mention the most recent, undeniably mendacious issues ….
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Jackula
Jackula
3 years ago

I never thought I’d see the day in western countries appeals to authority would replace evidence based arguments. This kinda stuff won’t fly too far in the courts nor at the ballot box.

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Doug78
Doug78
3 years ago
He is barking but refraining from biting and for reason. The disinformation part is vague enough to make it hold up in court even in Europe so Breton is counting on the big American tech companies to self-censure thereby avoiding it to be put to a test. Facebook and Google have no problem with that but Twitter does. The law on disinformation is like a law against driving too fast without defining what is too fast. If it comes to court then the governments in Europe have a big problem. They will have to define exactly what disinformation is and that is almost impossible. Twitter is very lawyered up just for this scenario. Musk has said that he will follow the law but show him the law to follow.
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Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
3 years ago
Reply to  Doug78
This is no problem because “I know it when I see it.”
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RonJ
RonJ
3 years ago
“The EU’s Thierry Breton tells US Big Tech corporations that he’s “The Enforcer” against disinformation.”
The enforcer of government disinformation. Was it Junker who said, “when it’s serious, you have to lie?”
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MPO45v2
MPO45v2
3 years ago
ADP payrolls beat expectations and the JOLTS is up from 9.6 to 10.1 million. Recession?
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KidHorn
KidHorn
3 years ago
Reply to  MPO45v2
Yes. The employment numbers are BS.
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Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
3 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
Exactly.
And the projected EV numbers are BS too.
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KidHorn
KidHorn
3 years ago
Disinformation has nothing to do with the truth. Disinformation are facts the left doesn’t want widely known.
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whirlaway
whirlaway
3 years ago
Reply to  KidHorn
Replace “left” with “establishment”. FYI, many of the articles on WSWS would be deemed as “disinformation”.
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Carl_R
Carl_R
3 years ago
Re: “…listen to French politicians who get to tramp on the US constitution…”
This is a bizarre take. The US Constitution affects laws that can be made the US. It has no binding authority on laws in France or any other country, nor should it. All countries are free to make whatever laws they wish, and if the laws are not popular in their country, the voters can replace the lawmakers. If a company doesn’t wish to abide by the laws of some country, they should abstain from doing business in that country, but if they do wish to do business in that country, they should abide by said laws. If it is more expensive to do business in a country, they should raise the price.
Yes, dealing with the flow of digital information that crosses borders complicates matters, but at least they can make rudimentary attempts to block ip address ranges, and force people to use VPNs. There are always solutions, but one solution that isn’t going to fly is to tell all the countries of the world that they must abide by the US Constitution.
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MPO45v2
MPO45v2
3 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
Thank you for your sensible wisdom.
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RonJ
RonJ
3 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
“All countries are free to make whatever laws they wish…”
Unless the CIA decides otherwise. Was it Bolton who was recently admitting to overthrowing some governments?
NewsGuard is not about protecting the truth. ABC, CBS, NBC, AP, New York Times, are just NewsGuard approved official propaganda outlets. NewsGuard seeks to demonetize alternative sources, even when they are telling the truth.
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TexasTim65
TexasTim65
3 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
Who is the ‘they’ you are referring to?
If you mean the US companies, then I disagree. It’s not their job to block IP addresses etc.
If you mean France and other other countries in the EU, then yes, I agree. Those countries can block access to the US companies via their internet backbone / ISP providers.
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Carl_R
Carl_R
3 years ago
Reply to  TexasTim65
The companies, of course, don’t need to block IP addresses. However, if they violate the laws of a country, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they face penalties, so they might want to. Fining a foreign tech giant a billion dollars is a lot easier than collecting said fine, of course.
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StukiMoi
StukiMoi
3 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R
The US constitution can only aspire to be valid at all, to the extent that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” etc., etc.
If it was nothing more than some set of made up gibberish arbitrarily stuffed down the throats of people with the misfortune to find themselves in North America, it would have no validity at all.
Frenchies were just as much “endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” etc., etc. ………
“If a company doesn’t wish to abide by the laws of some country, they should abstain from doing business in that country”
As a practical matter, that probably makes good sense in most cases.
Another equally valid option, is to find a way to skirt made-up “laws” abridging, say, freedom of speech. Or right to own and bear. The rights are both universal. Endowed by their Creator. Not some yahoo from France. If you can get away with skirting laws not respecting this, whether in France or The US, you’re certainly doing nothing wrong. But, again, it may me hard in practice.
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GruesomeHarvest
GruesomeHarvest
3 years ago
“Where’s Biden?” He’s busy developing his own Ministry of Truth. Don’t you remember last year how he walked it back after public backlash. When a bunch of arrogant, corrupt politicians are developing policies the are against the best interest of their citizens of course they need to control “the truth.”
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Mjs357
Mjs357
3 years ago
Reply to  GruesomeHarvest
FJB already has a re-branded office for this. SZABO: Biden’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ Is Back, But With New Branding
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babelthuap
babelthuap
3 years ago
Good times create weak men. I read and comment on IT forums being in the industry. I constantly get bashed but it doesn’t bother me. I am also an old Marine with skin thicker than a gator. This younger generation does not comprehend what freedom means, how it is achieved and how it must be maintained at all costs, even if it happens to hurts feelings from time to time. A small price to pay to keep ladders from being kicked to the ground. I hope for the best but the tea leaves are saying it’s heading to hard times create strong men.
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whirlaway
whirlaway
3 years ago
They will arrive at a quid pro quo between the political establishment and Big Tech. The governments will not enforce antitrust laws against Big Tech (in the US this has already happened, at least since 2009 if not even before that) and Big Tech will do what the political establishments tells it to do – in terms of propaganda, censorship and surveillance.
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Call_Me
Call_Me
3 years ago
The machinations of political persons in the fight against “disinformation” is quite a spectacle. The whole effort has a Cheshire Cat vibe in that it is what they say it is, but they are only in a position to do so because they won a popularity contest featuring “disinformation” in their campaigns.
Bureaucrats aren’t any better, they enjoy the power trip but don’t want to risk their well-being by going into law enforcement or military service. Be sure to salute and thank them for their service.
Call_Me_Al
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8dots
8dots
3 years ago
buy flip phones
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Felix_Mish
Felix_Mish
3 years ago
It seems the Chinese government is more honest and straightforward than the Euros. The Chinese built their own firewall to keep the evil bad other-people out. The Euros expect the evil bad other-people to change for them. For free.
Buddy, if you don’t like my lying, distorted disinformation, then shut your own ears. My listeners enjoy the story, made up or not.
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Jack
Jack
3 years ago
Reply to  Felix_Mish
Or from the other side, if Big Tech does not want to listen to the Europeans, then Big Tech could simply not comply and just leave Europe.
US gov asks Big Tech to do as they say in terms of propaganda, censorship and surveillance (I agree with whirlaway above). This is not the same but similar to what the Europeans are asking for.
The Russians and Chinese are subversive and not honest and straightforward – they flood Big Tech with disinformation (and are doing a good job dividing the west) and malware. The Chinese also steal company databases as part of their intelligence gathering.
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StukiMoi
StukiMoi
3 years ago
Reply to  Jack
“The Russians and Chinese are subversive and not honest and straightforward”
While my Dear Leader is honest and truthful.
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blacklisted
blacklisted
3 years ago
Corporations have been taking their marching orders from anyone with more influence than their customers – especially George Soros and his WOKE CEI (Corporate Equity
Index) score – https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/corruption/corporate-equality-index-2023-new-criteria-for-the-woke-credit-score/; and ESG/climate change
requirements that Larry Fink imposes on companies that dare wish to have their stock listed in one of Blackrock’s Mutual funds or ETFs. If you read the PDF
included in the above link you can see the details, which will explain why
Budweiser, Target, and many others are going Woke. What did Target expect when they hired a devil-worshiping Trannie to design cloths – https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/woke/target-10-billion-lost-in-10-days/.
It’s way past the
time for people to say ENOUGH, and STOP doing business with known criminal and
Woke corporations, which also includes big pharma and the big banks that have
paid massive cost-of-doing-business fines for laundering money for drug cartels
and human trafficker’s. After Memorial Day, it seems trivial to ask people for such
a small sacrifice to shop and bank elsewhere.
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MBA SOFA
MBA SOFA
3 years ago

That horrible right wing extremist guy, Galileo Galilei, spreading fake news. Experts say he’s liying.

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Dr Funkenstein
Dr Funkenstein
3 years ago
Big tech already censors truth they don’t like. Anything to please their Chinese Communist overlords. And I don’t trust French politicians, Biden, DeSantis, AOC, Trump, Putin, McCarthy, CNN, Fox or anyone else to be sole judge of what is truth.
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Jack
Jack
3 years ago
Reply to  Dr Funkenstein
Everyone has their own agenda. It is power, politics, and money.
This is similar to 1800s when we had the wild west in media when political parties and robber barons directly controlled the newspapers for their own benefit.
The wild west in media has returned. News has become politicized and super rich have returned.
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Lisa_Hooker
Lisa_Hooker
3 years ago
Reply to  Jack
You provide the pictures, I’ll provide the news.
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shamrock
shamrock
3 years ago
I see 4 options for the tech companies:
1. Abide by the laws.
2. Don’t abide by the laws and pay the fines.
3. Shut off service to all affected countries.
4. File lawsuits.
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Billy
Billy
3 years ago
Mish, thank you for posting the truth.
Is this when you are accepting our email sign-ups to receive your future encrypted news letters in the future?
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TexasTim65
TexasTim65
3 years ago
You are correct that the US tech companies should tell the EU to F-Off.
Or even better. Tell the EU that they are putting a Fictitious Disclaimer on their websites to indicate anything may or may not represent the truth. That should cover them. Like the all persons one that appears in shows.
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Democritus
Democritus
3 years ago
Reply to  TexasTim65
My thought exactly.
Musk can just add a thin gray banner above every tweet saying “not confirmed true”.
And then give the EU and/or other state censors an interface turning it into a green banner “confirmed true by EU”.
Or, when multiple countries confirm… “confirmed true by EU/US/China/Australia” or so. Extra bright green then 🙂
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billybobjr
billybobjr
3 years ago
Exactly Mish after the totaly discredited Russia collusion and 10s of thousands
of hours air time from msm and these people want totalk about the truth ? Joe Biden
set in a meeting and knew that it was bogus and was being pushed by the
Clinton campaigne per govtment records and he went along with it . They are trying
to silence any voice that they don’t agree with very scary .
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Zardoz
Zardoz
3 years ago
Reply to  billybobjr
That is some high density kookery… there are what, 6 conspiracy theories in there?
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Mjs357
Mjs357
3 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Aunt Tiffah troll boy still at it. Sad, he has nothing to offer the world except snark and insults. How lonely a person he must be.
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Zardoz
Zardoz
3 years ago
Reply to  Mjs357
Aww, you made me a kooky nickname! I’m sorry I have no conspiracy theories for you… yours are looking old and threadbare now that you don’t have tucker to refresh them. Just another lost boy without his Peter Pan.
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Mjs357
Mjs357
3 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Your trash talk is weak – like your will to be productive in life.
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Jack
Jack
3 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
What he said embodies the glorious mess of disinformation that is fed as news these days.
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KidHorn
KidHorn
3 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Do you still think the Russian collusion story is a conspiracy theory?
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RonJ
RonJ
3 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz
Conspiracy facts. Read the Durham Report.
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babelthuap
babelthuap
3 years ago
Reply to  billybobjr
We’re way beyond silencing. Persecuting people to protect themselves from being held accountable to the rule of law. Par for the course with commies. The running joke with Stalin when crowds waived and smiled at him was they knew that he knew that they knew. He smiled and waived back.
I was hoping the US would not have to experience the above circumstance in my lifetime but that hope is fading fast. I’m more hopeful of seeing the flowers re-grow in the desert at this point.
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