The Trump Lie About Europe and Why it Matters
Just before Christmas, the United States State Department imposed unprecedented visa restrictions on a former European Union Commissioner, Thierry Breton, and several civil society leaders who have battled online hate and disinformation. Deploying the rhetoric of the right’s faux free speech agenda, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused them of being “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex.” “Ideologues in Europe,” he tweeted, “have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose.”
The problem? Among other things, it’s not true. There is no censorship. There is no complex. There is no viewpoint discrimination. The administration is promoting disinformation about European law and policy for reasons that go well beyond social media regulation.
So what has Europe actually done to trigger such an outrageous response by the snowflakes in the Trump administration?
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