By Tyler Durden
The ruling elites in Europe, in what increasingly resembles the EUSSR (European Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in a race to the bottom, have become ever more unpopular. Their disapproval ratings are skyrocketing. In France, 77% of the public disapproves of President Emmanuel Macron. In Britain, 68% disapprove of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In Germany, 64% disapprove of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and in Spain, 61% are fed up with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
In other parts of Europe, such as Germany and France, all sorts of pseudo-legal contortions are produced to prevent political opponents from running for high office (as here and here).
So, what do you do when you’re an unpopular regime desperately clinging to power? It’s quite simple! The ayatollahs of Iran, China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Putin could tell you. They simply crack down—more than ever—on free speech and dissent!
In so-called democracies, this latest “advantage” for your people – the “democratic” approach to dealing with dissenters – means that instead of firepower, technology is used to crush freedom of speech.
Regarding age limits for children, a compelling argument can be made that having their faces stare at screens all day seems to impair a generation’s education and their ability to socialize with someone other than an AI chimera, narcotically programmed by algorithm to agree to everything uploaded, including the best ways to end its young, seemingly inadequate life. gatestoneinstitute+1
As Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov wrote on X: reuters+1
Today, Telegram notified all its users in Spain with this warning: reuters+1
The government of Pedro Sánchez is pushing through dangerous new regulations that threaten your online freedoms. These measures, announced just yesterday, could transform Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of “protection.” Here’s why they are a red flag for freedom of speech and privacy: reuters+1
- Ban on social media for under-16s with mandatory age verification: This is not just about children – it obliges platforms to use strict controls, such as the presentation of identification documents or biometric data.
Danger: This will lead to over-censorship – platforms will delete anything even remotely controversial to avoid risks, thereby silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo…
Danger: Governments will dictate what you see, suppress dissenting opinions, and create state-controlled echo chambers. Free exploration of ideas? Gone – replaced by curated propaganda.
Danger: Vague definitions of “hate” could brand government criticism as divisive and lead to closures or fines. This can be a tool for suppressing the opposition. These are not safeguards; they are steps toward total control. We have seen this script before—governments using “security” as a weapon to censor critics.
Demand transparency and fight for your rights. Spread the word – before it’s too late.
Durov, by the way, born in 1984 – of all years, in that Orwellian year! – in the Soviet Union, left Russia in 2014 after the Russian FSB security service demanded that his company VKontakte hand over the personal data of Ukrainian Euromaidan demonstrators and opposition figures, and because he had refused to censor posts on his site.
In Spain, in addition to a arguably justifiable ban on social media for people under 16, the government of Sanchez is introducing a package of laws consisting of five amendments to censor online opinions.
First, executives of social media platforms will not only face fines for failing to remove “illegal, hateful, or harmful” content from their platforms in a timely manner—they will now also be held criminally liable, including potential prison sentences. As Durov warns:
“This will lead to over-censorship – platforms will delete anything even remotely controversial to avoid risks, thereby silencing political dissent, journalism, and everyday opinions. Your voice could be next if it challenges the status quo.”
“Sanchez,” Elon Musk said even more bluntly, “is the true fascist totalitarian.”
Secondly, the amplification of “illegal” or “harmful” content through algorithms becomes a criminal offense. reuters+1
“We will make the algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content a new criminal offense,” Sanchez said.
“No more hiding behind code. No more pretending that technology is neutral.”
Thirdly, according to Sanchez:
“We will introduce a hate and polarization footprint system to track, quantify, and expose how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hate. For too long, hate has been treated as invisible and untraceable, but we will change that.”
The problem, of course, is that “hate” is usually never defined – which means that anything and everything can be labeled as “hate,” and often is. Judgments about what constitutes “hate” become entirely subjective and risk existing solely “in the eye of the beholder.”
In Sudan, for example, a British primary school teacher was sentenced to 40 lashes and imprisonment for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. In Iran today, people who have protested against the regime are sentenced to death for “war against God.”
The United States officially enshrines freedom of speech in the First Amendment to the Constitution:
“Congress shall not make any law imposing a state religion or prohibiting the free exercise of such religion; or restricting the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people to assemble peacefully and to lodge a grievance with the government.”
US courts have ruled that only child pornography and immediate, direct and credible threats, along with a few other restrictions, are prohibited.
Some ruling elites in Spain apparently want to ban X there completely. reuters+1
“The next battle should be aimed at restricting Twitter… and probably banning it,” declared the Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego.
Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz announced that she had left X and that anyone who remains on X is “feeding hate politics”.
France is planning a similar move “to ban minors from Instagram and TikTok,” and Germany is also seriously considering introducing such a ban. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany – the conservative party led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the largest in the governing coalition – is reportedly set to discuss the issue at its national party conference on February 20–21, 2026.
Denmark, Greece and Great Britain are also at various stages of either introducing X or seriously considering banning it, while European authorities are simultaneously trying to come up with other ways to shut X down.
In early February, French authorities and the European Union police agency Europol raided X’s offices in Paris on “suspicion of misuse of algorithms, as well as allegations relating to deepfake images and broader concerns regarding posts generated by the platform’s AI chatbot Grok,” as reported by Time Magazine.
According to The Telegraph, the raid was “primarily triggered by a member of parliament from Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, who complained after Musk’s purchase that X had ‘reduced the diversity of voices’, as well as by a separate complaint that the website hosted ‘disgusting political content’”.
In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into deepfakes on X, running parallel to Ofcom’s investigation into the platform. Liz Kendall, the Technology Secretary, stated that the government would offer its “full support” should the regulator decide to block access to the website in the United Kingdom, and accused opponents of the measures of “aligning themselves with those who consider the creation and publication of sexually manipulated images of women and children acceptable.”
All this comes on top of a €120 million fine imposed on X by the European Commission under its Digital Services Law “Delete. Silence. Abolish”.
