European witnesses told Congress Wednesday that the European Union is now routinely violating core Western freedoms of speech and religion—and is even claiming the power to censor speech worldwide, including that of Americans.
“European laws are now being exported by the European Union… American speech is already being affected,” testified Lorcán Price, an Irish lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom International.
Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen warned that under Europe’s expanding “hate speech” rules, “Speech that is lawful today can become criminalized tomorrow.” She said this should alarm anyone who values freedom. Irish comedian Graham Linehan also testified, explaining how in September 2025 he was arrested at Heathrow Airport for criticizing transgender policies. After that arrest, he said, “I became the target of a series of harassment campaigns that cost me my career, my marriage, and eventually drove me from my homeland.” Apparently, jokes and opinions now qualify as international crimes.
Republican witnesses testified alongside Democrat witness Deepinder Singh Mayell of the ACLU’s Minnesota chapter. Democrats focused on attacking federal immigration enforcement and claimed that harassing law enforcement qualifies as protected “free speech.” Mayell declined to answer when Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, asked whether illegal alien child rapists and murderers should be deported—an impressive dodge, even by political standards.
Linehan and Price warned that silencing citizens does more than violate historic Western rights—it fuels unrest. When people cannot express frustrations or resolve disputes through honest elections, they are more likely to turn to violence.
The House Judiciary Committee recently released two reports on European censorship, one in July 2025 and another Tuesday. The latest report concludes that European Union censorship affects accurate American speech, interferes in European elections, and “disproportionately targets conservatives.” It also finds that the global center of online speech repression has shifted from the United States under Biden to the European Union.
During the Biden administration, investigations such as Missouri v. Biden revealed federal officials pressured major platforms—Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, and X—to remove accurate information and conservative views, manipulating elections and public debate. These efforts were funneled through federally funded “private” groups that influenced algorithms and artificial intelligence systems controlling what people are allowed to see.
After President Trump won a second term, Mark Zuckerberg admitted to Joe Rogan that the censorship was real. While U.S. officials under Trump no longer run mass online suppression campaigns, the damage from Biden-era manipulation still affects global speech.
European Union rules now mirror that same model. In February 2024, the EU expanded censorship with its Digital Services Act (DSA), supposedly to fight “disinformation.” In practice, the DSA bans Christian and conservative ideas across any major platform operating in Europe, including American companies like Google and Facebook.
Like Communist China, the EU claims authority to enforce its “hate speech” rules globally. In its first enforcement action under the DSA, the EU fined X 120 million euros for allowing free speech on cross-border platforms. That action is under litigation. Last week, the EU opened another investigation into X over AI-generated abuse images, even though every major platform hosts such content—yet only X is being targeted so far.
According to the House Judiciary report, the DSA orders platforms to blacklist URLs, ban keywords, display left-wing messaging, and show “kindness reminders.” It censors Americans’ speech about the Ukraine war, elections, climate change, migration, populist candidates, and critiques of LGBT ideology, labeling dissent as “disinformation” or “hate speech.”
