The White House and Republican party allies have repeatedly attacked EU rules that govern online platforms as censorship. Now they want the world to put the critique into writing.
Eliza Gkritsi
The White House and Republican party allies have repeatedly attacked rules in several jurisdictions that govern online platforms, notably in the European Union, alleging that they amount to censorship. Most memorably, freshly elected U.S. Vice President JD Vance said in February 2025 that the biggest threat to Europe wasn’t Russia or China but its own actions against free speech.
“The Trump administration’s knee-jerk instinct to paint any tech regulation as a free speech crusade is political theater — a calculated smokescreen designed to deflect attention from the real censors: the U.S. government and its corporate allies,” said German Greens MEP Alexandre Geese when shown parts of the statement.
The signatories are to “commit” to “recognize that punishing allegedly false speech” like “disinformation,” “misinformation” or “hate speech” can endanger “freedom of expression” unless that content is directly inciting violence.
In a Thursday post on X, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers said there was a draft of a “free expression” document produced as part of recent talks at the OECD.
“We drafted a joint statement with the aim of promoting transparency and driving consensus. The statement is intended as an expression of comity and common values, and also as a source of interpretive guidance for American speech companies complying with overseas laws,” she wrote.
Rogers added that the declaration is not intended to override the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s flagship platform law.
