Germany's Deputy Prime Minister Robert Habeck said Europe needs to enact strict speech controls on Elon Musk's X platform to combat so-called “disinformation.”
Habeck, who is likely to be the left-wing Green Party's candidate for prime minister in the next general election, spoke at a speech he gave at the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation on Saturday about Germany and the country, including tightening internet censorship in the wake of Donald Trump's victory. He described his vision for Europe.
“We cannot leave democratic discourse in the hands of Elon Musk and Chinese software,” Habeck said. saidper Welts. He therefore argued that platforms such as TikTok and X should be subject to strict EU regulations.
The vice chancellor also called on Berlin to take an aggressive stance against the Trump administration on trade and defense, arguing that the United States “needs us too…If Trump threatens, we have nothing to hide.” .
However, long-standing environmental policies advocated by Habeck's party, including a complete shutdown of domestic nuclear power generation, left Germany vulnerable to outside forces, particularly the invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline.
Germany's leftist coalition government collapsed this week due to the dire state of Germany's economy and concerns about Trump's return to the White House.
Mr. Habeck's desire to further censor X was echoed in Paris by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault. tell Le Parisien “It is never acceptable for public debate to be outsourced to deregulated social networks at the hands of special interest groups, whether American or Chinese,” he said on Saturday.
“Let's hope he doesn't do to American democracy what he did to Twitter. Democracy is a fragile treasure,” Barot added.
The European Union has long been at odds over Elon Musk's efforts to reduce censorship from the previous Twitter administration. Notably, in August, then-EU censorship czar Thierry Breton demanded that Musk censor a live interview with then-candidate Donald Trump.
The Frenchman said that Musk “has a strict Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes heavy fines and the possibility of business bans in the region if he refuses to promote content that could have a negative impact on public discourse.” ), enacting the censorship powers granted under the Security in Europe”.
The Biden administration has refused to condemn censorship threats from the other side of the Atlantic, but a second Trump presidency is likely to respond more aggressively to Brussels' attempts to restrict free speech. There are signs that this is the case.
Citing the Breton threat, then-vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said in an interview with podcaster Sean Ryan in September that Washington could provide military aid conditional on upholding important American values. It was suggested that there is a sex.
“What the United States should say is that if NATO wants us to continue to support us, and NATO wants us to continue to be good participants in this military alliance, then why do we believe in American values? “Why don't you respect freedom of speech?” said.
“It is insane that we support military alliances when military alliances do not support free speech…I have to say that America's power comes with certain conditions. One of them is respect for freedom of speech, especially in our country.'' Our European allies. ”
