Sticks and Stones: Europeans Debate, Defend and ‘Dismantle’ Free Speech
NEED TO KNOW
Sticks and Stones: Europeans Debate, Defend and ‘Dismantle’ Free Speech
EUROPE
When US Vice President J.D. Vance said Europe was trampling on fundamental freedoms such as free speech, he set off a firestorm across the continent.
“What I worry about is the threat from within – the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” he said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany in February.
Then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany was clearly irritated by the comments. “We should be very clear that free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against (the) laws we have in our country,” he said.
Still, with those comments, Vance set off a fierce debate that is lingering months later, one that pits free-speech absolutists against those who argue that some speech restrictions are necessary to avoid infringing on the freedom of others to live in a safe, peaceful, and civilized society.
Currently, speech restrictions are not uniform across the European Union. In Germany, one can be taken to court if one insults someone but that isn’t true in Denmark. Meanwhile, it’s illegal to deny the Holocaust in many countries on the continent but not in all.
The libertarian Cato Institute says that, regardless, European restrictions go too far, even as the think tank also takes aim at the current and prior US administrations for attempting to restrict speech it doesn’t like.
“Vance rightly criticized the European approach to free expression,” it wrote, providing examples of the United Kingdom jailing its citizens for praying near an abortion center or Sweden’s new blasphemy laws targeting those who burn the Muslim holy book, the Quran, at protests. “…The impulse to censor is universal and must be resisted universally.”
Writing in World Politics Review, Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Istituto Affari Internazionali, however, dismissed the idea that speech restrictions in Europe are a threat or go too far.
Still, observers say that numerous examples of speech restrictions in Europe show how neither side is 100 percent wrong.
British magazine the Economist recently blasted the UK’s actions cracking down on speech, highlighting an incident in which six police officers detained a man and his partner for “disparaging emails and WhatsApp messages about their daughter’s primary school.”
“Speech is being restricted, particularly online, in alarming ways and at an increasingly alarming rate,” it said, adding that the number of arrests is now more than a thousand a month for online posts. “The root cause can be found in the country’s speech laws, which are a mess and ill-suited to the digital age: Brits are prosecuted for the sorts of conversations they would have had in the pub. And things are set to get worse.”
Still, one favorite target of the current US administration is the European Digital Services Act (DSA), a bloc-wide law that imposes strict oversight on online speech and, unlike the US, attempts to hold Big Tech responsible for its violations: For example, social media platforms must systematically identify, assess, and mitigate content risks, from hate speech to disinformation and election interference – or face massive fines.
One example of a platform under investigation under its rules is TikTok: It is being scrutinized for aiding interference in Romania’s presidential election last year, allegations that led the country to annul its election and hold a new one.
Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Chair, Brendan Carr, has promised to fight the Europeans over their attempt to “censor” Facebook, Google, and other US tech platforms, wrote Politico. Recently, he wrote to Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, X, and others asking them for details on how they are “reconciling the DSA with America’s free speech tradition,” and what role they see that “EU government officials will play in encouraging you to silence speech and demand that you censor information.”
Europeans, however, say the DSA protects free speech.
“Does the DSA censor? No,” said the Center for European Policy Analysis, echoing EU officials who say “lawful” content would not be removed. “The DSA tackles illegal or demonstrably harmful activity – terrorist propaganda, child sexual abuse material, and foreign-backed election meddling. These obligations (bear) no relation to China’s Great Firewall or Russia’s platform bans.”
Meanwhile, Europeans continue to debate and legislate on speech.
In Germany, the new coalition government under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz is planning new rules that would criminalize “the deliberate dissemination of false factual claims,” with a new agency to oversee the new rules, the Wall Street Journal wrote in an op-ed, adding that even conservatives from Merz’ party are ridiculing the measure.
“This initiative has already earned a nickname in Germany,” it added, “The ‘lying ban.’”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Israel Attacks Iran, Kills Top Intelligence Official
ISRAEL / IRAN
Israel attacked Iran’s capital early Friday in strikes that targeted the country’s nuclear program and military targets, killing at least two top military officers and raising the potential for an all-out war between the two Middle East adversaries, the Associated Press reported.
Multiple sites around the country were hit, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air.
The strikes came amid simmering tensions over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, which the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog this week found in violation of the country’s commitments under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty for the first time in 20 years, the Guardian reported.
Israel confirmed it launched what it said was a “preemptive strike” on Iran’s nuclear program. In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of the operation was “to damage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, its ballistic missile factories and military capabilities.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States is not involved in the strikes.
The strikes, including on the capital, Tehran, killed Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other senior officials, according to the Israeli military and Iranian state media.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned in response that “severe punishment” would be directed at Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Iran had launched more than 100 drones in retaliation for the attacks.
The strikes come ahead of the sixth round of nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran in Oman on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution to censure Iran for repeated violations of the treaty, citing Tehran’s refusal to explain nuclear activities at undisclosed sites since 2019, and its stockpiling of uranium enriched to 60 percent – near weapons-grade levels.
The motion paves the way for the possible reimposition of UN-wide sanctions on Iran later this year by European powers.
Iran began boosting its nuclear program shortly after the first Trump administration withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018.
That agreement stipulated that Iran would curtail much of its nuclear ambitions and open its facilities to international inspections in exchange for sanctions relief.
Following the IAEA’s findings, Tehran announced the construction of a new enrichment center and plans to replace first-generation centrifuges at one of its facilities with advanced sixth-generation models.
The country has insisted on its right to enrich uranium under IAEA supervision – a stance accepted under the previous Obama and Biden administrations but rejected by the Trump administration.
However, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany cautioned that 60 percent enrichment has no civil justification.
The watchdog’s vote has created urgency for the upcoming US-Iran talks in Oman, where Tehran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium domestically, subject to tighter IAEA monitoring and lower enrichment caps.
Even so, US President Donald Trump has expressed growing skepticism about reaching a deal and accused Iran of slow-walking the process.
Ahead of the diplomatic meeting, Washington had taken precautionary measures in the region this week by ordering the departure of nonessential staff from the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and authorized similar steps for personnel and families in Bahrain and Kuwait, the Wall Street Journal noted.
Meanwhile, observers have questioned Iran’s claims of peaceful intent.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told the Guardian that enrichment to 60 percent “does not look like a civil program.” He suggested that Tehran could produce weapons-grade uranium within a week.
Albright added that while Israel has detailed intelligence on Iranian nuclear sites, it may lack the munitions needed to destroy some of the heavily fortified facilities without US support.
Togo’s Leader Under Pressure to Resign
TOGO
Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé is under pressure to step down after rare protests calling for his resignation broke out this month, following constitutional changes that could allow him to stay in power for life, the Associated Press reported.
On Tuesday, opponents of the president condemned the arrest and alleged mistreatment of demonstrators who participated in the protests in Togo’s capital, Lomé, and on social media. The protests were met with a harsh crackdown.
Around half of the 80 protesters who were arrested were released late Monday, the newswire reported. However, at least 25 remain in custody, a local rights group said, urging authorities to release the others.
Public prosecutor Talaka Mawama defended the arrests, calling the protests “part of a revolt against the institutions of the republic.”
Gnassingbé has ruled Togo since 2005, succeeding his father. He was sworn in last month as the President of the Council of Ministers, a new executive body. In the new post, the highest office in the government’s executive branch, Gnassingbé has more power, no official term limits, and can be re-elected by parliament indefinitely, meaning he could potentially rule for life, the BBC noted.
Opposition parties called the move a “constitutional coup.”
“What the Togolese now want is the end of this regime, which can no longer offer anything to the people after 20 years of absolute and repressive power of Faure Gnassingbé,” said a coalition of political groups known as “Hands Off My Constitution.”
Protests are rare in Togo, banned since 2022 after a deadly attack at Lomé’s main market.
French Tesla Drivers Sue Tesla After Being ‘Damaged’ by the Brand
FRANCE
Almost a dozen French owners of Tesla cars have filed a complaint against Elon Musk’s US electric vehicle company, saying they have been damaged by the brand following his foray into politics, Agence France-Presse reported.
The 10 plaintiffs, who have leases on Teslas, say they have suffered “direct and concrete” damage from the current association between Tesla and “Elon Musk’s actions,” because the vehicles are now considered symbols of the “extreme-right,” attorneys for the plaintiffs told AFP.
The plaintiffs want the Paris court to terminate the leases and pay attorneys’ fees. Most leases in France last four years, with an option to buy after the contract ends.
The lawsuit comes as Tesla cars and also dealerships in Europe and elsewhere have been targeted by vandals. Some drivers report they have been insulted for driving a Tesla.
Meanwhile, sales of Teslas have dropped as much as 80 percent in some European markets, with a 37 percent drop in the first quarter across Europe overall, even as sales of electric vehicles rose, Reuters reported.
Part of that is due to competition with China’s electric cars and part is in protest of Musk’s political views and what is perceived as his interference in European affairs, Reuters added.
For example, Tesla sales plummeted after Musk publicly expressed his support for the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in January, according to Politico.
The lawsuit is based on a provision in French law that dictates that the seller of an item must “guarantee clients a peaceful use of the goods sold,” the lawyers explained.
“Musk’s political positions have interrupted enjoyment” of Teslas, said one attorney representing the Tesla owners.
A judge will decide if the suit can move forward, and also if other disgruntled Tesla owners can be a party to the suit.
Tesla did not respond to AFP’s request for comments.
DISCOVERIES
The Long Toes of Evolution
A rock slab from Australia with newly discovered fossilized footprints containing long toes and claws is now suggesting that reptile-like creatures originated 35 million years earlier than previously thought.
In fact, researchers say the discovery has turned the accepted evolutionary timeline of backboned land animals, or ‘tetrapods,’ on its head.
“They are the oldest tracks of clawed feet in the world,” said study author Per Ahlberg in a statement. “It’s astounding that a single slab of rock, so small that one person can lift it, calls into question everything we thought we knew about the emergence of modern tetrapods.”
Tetrapods originated from a group of fish that left the sea about 390 million years ago, in the Devonian period, and became the ancestors of all modern backboned land animals, including amphibians and amniotes, a group that encompasses mammals, reptiles, and birds.
Before this study, the oldest known amniote fossils dated to the late Carboniferous period, around 320 million years ago. The Australian sandstone slab recently discovered, however, is around 355 million years old and shows that reptiles were already present at the beginning of the Carboniferous period, 35 million years earlier.
“When I first saw the rock slab, I was very surprised,” said study author Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki. “After just a few seconds, I noticed that it bore clearly preserved claw marks. Claws are present in all early amniotes, but almost never in other groups of tetrapods. The combination of claw marks and the shape of the feet suggests that the tracks were made by a primitive reptile.”
Further support for this timeline came from newly discovered fossil reptile tracks in Poland. Even if these are not as old as those recovered from Australia, researchers said, they are still much older than any previously known examples.
Researchers tried to estimate when the last common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes lived by combining fossil dating with the DNA of living descendants. The results show that it must have been at the beginning of the latter part of the Devonian period, which was previously thought to be inhabited only by primitive fish-like tetrapods.