Europe's "Free Speech Police" Targeting Americans

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Michael Morris to the program Media Research Center Free
Speech America. Poohba, you don't mind being a pooba, do you? Michael?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning?

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Think you're the director. I want to get some information
on this because I saw you guys put out this
alert that we know that a lot of our European
allies seem to have a problem with free speech in
recent years, and they're actually citing people, they're doing raids
when people post certain things. But now you say they're

(00:33):
threatening to reach across the pond to Americans. How can
that be?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Absolutely right? Maybe it's time to issue a travel advisory
for Europe. Right, Yeah, there's a massive free speech crackdown overseas,
you said it. UK government arrested twelve thousand people between
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. Germany conducted fifty
pre dawn armed raids in a single day. At least

(01:00):
one person got their their devices confiscated because of a
meme that was posted on social media. And it's not
just in Germany, it's not just in the UK. Similar
occurrences are having in Romania, France, Finland as well, And
you're absolutely right, they're trying to pressure American tech companies
and Americans to adhere to their anti free speech ways.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, they don't have any authority here, so so what
they if they we I post something they don't like
and I travel over there, they can arrest me.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
We look at scary stuff. So the UK, the European Union,
and Brazil I've actually made repeated threats to Americans and
American tech companies. For example, UK Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir
Mark Rally actually threatened to quote throw the full force
to law unquoted foreigners for their online speech. A European

(01:55):
Union Commissioner Warren Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the Exton
and Tesla owner, that they'd better not say anything that
would be illegal in the EU during an X interview
in the United States. Brazil has issued an arrest warrant
for an American citizen after trying to censor her speech online
and even made threats towards Elon Musk and the X

(02:17):
platform among others as well. And it doesn't stop there.
The EU and the UK are also pressuring American tech
companies to censor here and abroad. What they're doing is
they're actually letting massive fines on tech companies to try
to push them into a more totalitarian direction.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Wow. You know, it's particularly chilling to me, Michael, with
the UK because centuries of British and American common law,
one of the foundational articles of faith is that you
have the freedom to think and say what you want.
So for the UK to be policing speech is very chilling,
absolutely right.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
And what's galling about all of this is that many
of these people pushing these anti free speech policies overseas
are the same ones saying that they believe in free speech.
You know, I'll quote one of my favorite movies here.
You keep using that word. I do not think it
means what you think.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
It means, right, So what kind of speech are they
are they particularly bothered by.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, like, it's anything that speaks out against the government,
anything that is critical of a politician. It's you know,
government policies having to do with the legal immigration or
other horrible atrocities that are taking place overseas. If you
were out speaking against the government, which by the way,
is what the First Amendment was created for here in

(03:41):
the United States, be critical of those governing in the nation,
so we don't go in the wrong direction. Europe is
saying we will not allow that here.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Well, you know, it's one thing for them to extort
the big tech companies like they find Meta more than
thirty billion, because all they've got the money, but to
basically threaten individuals. Yeah, well, you know, Germany has a history.
Let's face it's pick up a book. But the UK

(04:10):
this is horrible, this is brutal. Appreciate the information, Michael,
thanks for coming on this morning.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Michael Morris, director of Media Research Center Free Speech America,
here on kfab's Morning News