EU wants ‘full control’ over online speech – legal expert

Bureaucrats want a final say on what can and cannot be discussed, Alexandre Guerreiro has said

The European Union is using legal tools to pressure social media platforms and steer public debate on politically sensitive topics, Portugal-based international law expert Alexandre Guerreiro has told RT.

His comments came after the EU fined platform X €120 million ($163 million) last week for allegedly failing to comply with transparency requirements under the bloc’s 2022 Digital Services Act. The platform’s US-based owner, Elon Musk, responded by denouncing the EU, likening it to “the Fourth Reich.”

Guerreiro argued that the DSA is only one element of a broader regulatory framework that gives Brussels significant leverage over online communication.

“We have a lot of bureaucrats trying to impose and limit, to put conditions on creativity and free speech,” he said.

According to the scholar, the EU’s approach amounts to an attempt “to have full monopoly and full control” not only over major online platforms, but over “basically the messages and the speech” circulating on them.

Watch the full interview.