“L’Etat, c’est moi” – “I am the state” – Louis XIV is supposed to have said. And in a contemporary echo of that famous phrase, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton repeatedly stressed on Monday that “I am the regulator” when lambasting social media networks for “not having done enough” during the recent French riots and threatening them with sanctions, including even banishment, if they should remain similarly inactive after August 25th.
Not having done enough of what? Well, namely censorship: suppression of content that the European Commission deems to have been in some way or another harmful in the circumstances. Hence, the importance of the August 25th date. For August 25th will mark exactly four months since the European Commission officially designated 17 “Very Large Online Platforms” and two “Very Large Online Search Engines”, and from that date forward, per the below timeline, the designated entities will have to be in compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is designed precisely to “regulate” online speech.
Breton made his remarks in conversation with the French public broadcaster France Info, noting that in the future the social media companies will have to be pro-active in deleting content or face sanction. “When there is hateful content,” he said, “content that calls, for example, for revolt, also that calls to kill – because we’ve seen that too, [from] individuals… they will have the obligation to delete it instantly. If they don’t do it, they will be immediately sanctioned.”
Breton did not give any specific examples of content calling for violence, much less murder. But, interestingly, when one of the interviewers repeatedly tried to point the finger at Twitter as one of the main offenders, Breton was quick to correct him, noting that the main offenders, per coverage in the French press, are rather TikTok and Snapchat.
Given the correspondence between the notably young demographics of the French rioters and the demographics of TikTok and Snapchat users, this is hardly surprising. Moreover, the content that has been widely cited as circulating on TikTok and Snapchat – and sometimes indeed reproduced in the traditional French media itself (see here, for instance) – consists not so much of calls to violence, as video documentation of the violence that has occurred.
This proliferation of videos of the French violence on social media and via messaging apps appears to be the real target of Breton’s wrath. Indeed, the Commissioner referred to it himself, even suggesting that platforms were using algorithms to make such material go viral – as if they would have to!
The indulgence shown by Breton towards Twitter is also unsurprising, since many observers (including the present author) noticed videos of the French violence posted on Twitter quickly disappearing. This suggests that Twitter was indeed acting pro-actively to suppress the material in question.
It can be wondered in passing what exactly is the justification for suppressing genuine documentation of the violence and destruction – this is, after all, a form of information, not ‘disinformation’ – and whether its suppression will not in fact create a void that will be filled precisely by inauthentic ‘fake news’. See, for example, this tweet on the burning of an ‘Alcazar’ library in Marseilles. A Twitter ‘Community Note’ correctly points out that the embedded video is of a different building. But it fails to mention that a small municipal library of that name was in fact set on fire by rioters in Marseilles.
Be that as it may, Breton noted that he had recently been to California to run “stress tests” with the American social media companies to ensure their preparedness for the DSA deadline, and he noted that he will go to China next week to discuss the same matter with TikTok. Consider the irony of this: an EU official travelling to China to ensure that a Chinese company is prepared to comply with a European censorship law!
Breton also noted that during his visit to California, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that he was going to “hire one thousand people” – presumably to serve as human censors – in order to ensure Meta’s compliance with the EU rules.
Nonetheless, the France Info journalists poured some cold water on Breton’s enthusiasm, noting that Meta does not even have any plans yet for rolling out its Twitter-alternative Threads in the European Union and wondering whether an excess of EU regulation might not be making some of the Big Tech companies “skittish”.
In any case, Breton is not wrong that he or, at any rate, the European Commission as such is the regulator. For, speaking of Louis XIV, the DSA invests the Commission, the EU executive, with what are, in effect, absolute powers to determine infractions of the law and apply sanction in the case of non-compliance.
Robert Kogon is a pen name for a widely-published financial journalist, translator and researcher working in Europe. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on Twitter.
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“Equality” —–A cautionary tale.—– “Equality” according to who? Does “equality” mean the same to a black person who are convinced they are oppressed as to white person who does not feel like an oppressor? Does “equality” mean the same to someone on minimum wage as it does to a billionaire? Do people want “equality” of opportunity or do they think we should have “equality of outcomes? —–I suggest “equality” is in the eye of the beholder.
Vernal looks like a total mincer to me, what do you think Varmint?
Not by looking at his face. Only by listening to his words and looking at his actions. The whole “equality” business is just like every other commie scam.
Vernal look rather effete to my gimlet eye. Why are we giving non jobs to such utterly mediocre mincers?
If you give someone a well-paid job with prestige and power, and you call it “Head of Equality”, they have no incentive to increase “equality” because if they did then they’d be out of a job.
Exactly
Like SAGE, who only exist when there’s an “emergency”, or the WHO who peddle “pandemics”, or pharma companies who may prefer us to rely on their “treatments” instead of looking after ourselves.
Orwell prediction comes true, yet again!!!
And what a surprise he’s not Mother’s Pride.
Any organisation with an ‘Equality Officer’ deserves to be shut down in its entirety.
Off-T
Slightly.
https://thenewconservative.co.uk/islam-demands-labour-will-comply/
Even Frank Haviland is issuing words of warning as sectarian politics pushes in to the space vacated by the Uniparty.
How precisely does expressing oppositon to the policy and actions of the state of Israel in the middle-east compromise the safety of Jewish students at Oxford?
Are you actually serious? I’d guess you are just plain stupid but hey, maybe you think you are right and there is nothing to see here just like 1936.
I guess that you don’t have an answer to the question and that’s why you’re trying to insult me instead.
The excerpt mentions two demands of the protestors:
Professor Goldman asserts that this would compromise the safety of Jewish students […] at Oxford. However, he doesn’t state why he believes so and you calling me names and waving Nazi tokens doesn’t demonstrate that, either. Hence, so far, there’s no reason for this assertion. I can think of a meta-reason, namely, both Goldman and you really want someone powerful to shut these protests down, nat-con style.
I actually find it impossible to believe you said that to be honest. Does it not occur to you what “From the River to the Sea” means? How would you feel if a bunch of your co-workers chanted, day after day, a slogan which meant they wish to kill you?
Seriously, does it really not compute that they are deliberately and knowingly targeting Jewish students? I cannot, for the life of me, see how you can not see this.
Does it not occur to you what “From the River to the Sea” means? How would you feel if a bunch of your co-workers chanted, day after day, a slogan which meant they wish to kill you?
I “feel” you’re making an incoherent statement. “From the River to the Sea” refers to the country between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea which is supposed to be liberated from Israeli control. This doesn’t express a wish to kill aynone, not even necessarily for someone to be killed there, as a peaceful solution is perfectly conceivable and not really more unlikely than any other, ie, totally unlikely, as Israel is the military great power in this area and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.
BTW, my position on that is that I resent being dragged into the petty squabbles between J-semites and M-semites in a “distant country I know (next to) nothing of” and couldn’t care less about. Except maybe a bit of Schadenfreude that our former enemies (ie, enemies of the central powers) in this region are still at each other throats fighting for the spoils of 1918.
I did think this was funny, mind. The terrorist-supporting, Jew-hating rape-apologists won’t see the humour though. To them every word reported by actual terrorist organizations, who can’t stop declaring how much they hate, well, everyone who isn’t them, is the Gospel;
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1788257560182571464
Many years ago the leftie nutcases stood solidly behind the Jews at the Battle of Cable Street. Today they are the Nazi’s. Socialism does not really change much, it just has a change of clothes now and again. The sad thing is that people like this fool, and those in the camps, do not even realise who they are.
The Black Shirts of Oswald Mosley were fascists but not antisemitic, at least until their marches were sabotaged by Communists & Jews.
The rise of Oswald Mosley:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZZkPTTkrM
Maybe Nigel Biggar, the Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at Oxford should resign as he has obviously lost his “moral” compass by supporting the Jewish slaughter of the indigenous Palestinians.
Do please look up some history and remove the “indigenous” bit. Also, did you know that Israel has the best record in the world for not killing civilians? They make a point of warning exactly where they are going to attack and give civilians time to move.
Perhaps the terrorist-supporting Jeremy Corbyn fan club on here could remind us of a time when Israel actually initiated a conflict in the Middle East, in comparison to their many hate-fueled, barbarian jihadist neighbours that surround them. I’d rather be surrounded by a load of Jews than live in a Muslim majority neighbourhood any day of the week.
You are hilarious.
Love the satire.
This is hilarious:What are the conspiracy theories MPs have been warned about? (msn.com)
Good grief. More taxpayers money wasted. So if the usual “fact checkers” – ‘trusted news initiative’ FFS – declare a conspiracy theory then we are supposed to believe it.
Yeah right.
So there is no ‘reset?’
There is no ‘replacement?’
We really are living through ‘1984’ and 2 + 2 definitely equals 5.
I thought this letter written by Jewish students to the community of Columbia University was excellent. I will never ever, for as long as I live, understand why people would wish to deny these people their fundamental right to self-determination in their homeland. Muslims have 50+ nations, many of which they got rid of Christians and Jews from, and if there are any still left in some of those places they live like second class citizens, persecuted and murdered every single day. And yet they have the absolute audacity to begrudge and war over a tiny piece of land, approx the size of Wales, which is the only place the Jews get to call ”home”. There is no sense, no rational to that sort of mindset, none.
And yet these ‘useful idiots’, these cheerleaders of terrorists have the temerity to show their ignorance by accusing Israel of ”ethnic cleansing”?! LOL Well I think opening a history book might be a good place to start before you accuse Jews of ethnic cleansing, because the Muslims know a thing or two about being ‘colonizers’, to put it mildly. Approx 2 million Muslims/Arabs live peacefully, enjoying equal rights in Israel. How many Jews and Christians can say the same living in the majority Muslim countries?
”Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.
Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.
We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.
Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny.
The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “ the oppressors of all brown people ” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special”. Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here”, alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland” where our relatives lie in mass graves.”
https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub
Well 10 out of 10 for consistency, at least. 0 out of 10 for common sense, decency or democracy.
He managed to mess up the police then move on to Oxford? His credentials must be brilliant because from Essex to Oxford is quite an upgrade. Whoever appointed him should be ashamed. Mind you, these days every HR department has to kowtow to Stonewall. Diversity champion my foot!