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Unmasking the EU's €650 Million War on Free Speech
A spectre is haunting Europe – not of disinformation, but of linguistic control and censorship, coming from the heart of the EU Commission. This report exposes a covert campaign conducted by the European Commission to regulate the boundaries of legitimate public debate in Europe. It has used hundreds of millions of euros in taxpayer money to fund an Orwellian disinformation complex and what might be called the EU Ministry for Narrative Control.
Through hundreds of unaccountable non-governmental organisations and universities carrying out 349 projects, masked by ambiguous ‘NEUspeak’ and euphemistic terms like ‘deliberative democracy’ or ‘capacity building’, the Commission is waging a silent war to regulate language. The objective is the de-legitimisation of alternative narratives, like the rising tide of populist opposition.
What's presented as combating ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation’ is, in fact, a systematic assault on free speech in Europe, designed to construct an ideological infrastructure for controlling political narratives and shaping public opinion. This is a top-down, authoritarian, curated consensus, where expression is free only when it speaks the language of compliance established by the Commission.
About the author
Dr Norman Lewis is a visiting research fellow for MCC Brussels.
Norman is a writer, speaker and consultant on innovation and technology. He is recognised worldwide as an expert on future trends and user behaviours regarding technology innovation and adoption. He has over 20 years of experience driving commercial innovations and disruptive social technologies in global corporations and start-ups. His research on the EU’s digital sovereignty strategy, particularly the negative impact of its regulatory dynamic, focuses on the increasing censorious attacks on online content and speech, which threaten the future of democracy and innovation.
