https://sputniknews.in/20251211/elon-musk-vs-europe-who-owns-freedom-of-speech-10203549.html
Elon Musk vs Europe: Who Owns Freedom of Speech?
Elon Musk vs Europe: Who Owns Freedom of Speech?
Sputnik India
It’s an immensely important story, that. It shows us that not everyone can say what he/she wants on platform like X (used to be Twitter), and tells us why... 11.12.2025, Sputnik India
2025-12-11T17:30+0530
2025-12-11T17:30+0530
2025-12-11T17:30+0530
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To remind, Eurocommission (government of the EU) has fined X a whopping sum of 120 billion euros for… Simply speaking, it’s for the platform’s coming at odds with the EU rules of what you can or cannot say out loud. Which means that Americans (or, indeed, any other users, since X is free for all) have the right to speak out anywhere, but not in Europe. That makes the situation exceptionally weird, since cyberspace, at least theoretically, is free for all. But, according to European rules, Elon Musk, while sitting in the US, has to moderate his platform and make everyone in the world speak like a European and, indeed, think like a European.If you look at the technical reasons for that fine, you’ll discover that the problem, or rather the pretext, is a blue verification mark on the screen,. You cannot just say anything in Internet, since, according to the current European thinking, somebody has to allow you to do it by pressing a blue verification button on the screen. While that button in X is just a mockery, nothing else.A lot of observations have to be made over that weird story. The most obvious one is that there is no more united Western ideology, since Americans and Europeans are being pressed into living in two different information universes. And so Elon Musk exercises his freedom of speech by proposing that EU has to be dismantled, while Europeans are saying that Musk and others are Nazis, spreading hate speech. .A deep ideological rift in the formerly united West is not a sensation at all, especially if you read that remarkable document, the National Security Strategy of USA. That, in fact, is a wonderful admission that there are now two kinds of nations and two ways of thinking down there. Although the split is not just between one nation and another, it often runs deep across smaller communities and families.So what do we, the global majority, conclude from that rift? We may start exploring history, so as to discover who has invented the very idea of freedom of speech and discussion, not to mention respect to various religious beliefs. Was it the West? How about Indian experience starting from, maybe, 12thcentury, with Indian experience of “civilizational cohesion”?But then, maybe there is no need to dig that deep into history. There was a very recent example of the right approach to freedom of speech, and that was in that good old Times of India. Three European ambassadors have published their collective lamentation there, getting close to a protest against an oncoming visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to India. But they have got an answer the day after next, since the Russian Ambassador, Denis Alipov, has published his piece in the same newspaper.Now, let me say it again – it has been published the day after next. It’s technically possible, but is a bit drastic to expect a prominent diplomat to read something in the morning, prepare a coherent answer, call the ToI editors and send them his piece, all within these several working hours. Doing it even in 24 hours, when your President is on his way, is a lot to expect, too. So let me guess: how about the Russian Ambassador being informed in advance that his European colleagues are to contribute their wisdom, and invited to be prepared to state his position.That’s what respected newspapers and wise civilizations are for: they let everyone have a say. Now, if I was a minor god, would I want to censor the European diplomats, saying that they base their ideas on completely distorted facts, if not on outright lies? Of course I might have wanted that. But a bigger god, that’s ToI, would have restrained me, since censorship is dumb and useless.One more secondary aspect in that 120-million-euros scandal is interesting. Why are the European political climate-fighters the most vocal ones, demanding of the European government to be firm in “defending the freedom of speech” from the US? The thing is, the Greens in Europe and in the US have long been building their global strategy on totalitarian control over science and information. The victory of Donald Trump in the US was a disaster for that multibillion-dollar scam of preventing the Earth from overheating. And that was not only because the previous administration’s climate policies have been cancelled, but also due to the outrageous reality that you may now talk freely about the relevant data and research, debating and proving your point.Finally, there is some interesting news from Ukraine, showing what is real censorship. It’s not directly related to the transatlantic battle over values and ideas, it’s rather about totalitarian mind control performed by robots.The thing is, we are not talking about anything like united America pitted against united Europe. The IT monsters from the US have tried to control the minds in America (in a very European way), and are still at it, being in opposition to the current masters in Washington. But, in the meantime, these monsters have gotten themselves a large contract in Ukraine, sponsored by Europeans and other leftist liberals. The goal is to create something called a sovereign language model, supported by Google-made model of artificial intellect, with relevant neural networks, and clouds, and the rest.Which, in practice, means that the Ukrainian language, not very popular in Ukraine (Russian is the preferable means of communication), will be generated by a machine that gives users the politically correct phrasing, and also the well-filtered facts and ideas. Historical facts, definitions, old and current figures will all be checked for political correctness and the proper context. You won’t be able to write a piece with the help of that AI or even to search the Net for facts, if you communicate with it in what you think is Ukrainian language. That brainwashing machine is supposed to be an obligatory part of government websites, as well as of schools, universities and other resources.Mind you, that’s how ideology of Ukraine was being shaped previously. That process has, first, clashed West Ukraine with its East in a bloody civil war. And then it had thrown Ukraine against Russia. These were the living people who were abusing freedom of speech and creating alternative reality. Will the robots be any better?At the looks of it, that future Ukrainian robotic brainwashing is something like the current owners of European ideology and politics want to use in their territory, not to mention the rest of the world. And it’s very funny to see America confronting all that, but then America has always been a complicated phenomenon.Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
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elon musk, vladimir putin, donald trump, europe, us, google, european union (eu), ukraine
elon musk, vladimir putin, donald trump, europe, us, google, european union (eu), ukraine
Elon Musk vs Europe: Who Owns Freedom of Speech?
It’s an immensely important story, that. It shows us that not everyone can say what he/she wants on platform like X (used to be Twitter), and tells us why Europe clashed with X’s owner Elon Musk, and also how does it affect the whole world.
To remind, Eurocommission (government of the EU) has fined X a whopping sum of 120 billion euros for… Simply speaking, it’s for the platform’s coming at odds with the EU rules of what you can or cannot say out loud. Which means that Americans (or, indeed, any other users, since X is free for all) have the right to speak out anywhere, but not in Europe. That makes the situation exceptionally weird, since cyberspace, at least theoretically, is free for all. But, according to European rules, Elon Musk, while sitting in the US, has to moderate his platform and make everyone in the world speak like a European and, indeed, think like a European.
If you look at the technical reasons for that fine, you’ll discover that the problem, or rather the pretext, is a blue verification mark on the screen,. You cannot just say anything in Internet, since, according to the current European thinking, somebody has to allow you to do it by pressing a blue verification button on the screen. While that button in X is just a mockery, nothing else.
A lot of observations have to be made over that weird story. The most obvious one is that there is no more united Western ideology, since Americans and Europeans are being pressed into living in two different information universes. And so Elon Musk exercises his freedom of speech by proposing that EU has to be dismantled, while Europeans are saying that Musk and others are Nazis, spreading hate speech. .
A deep ideological rift in the formerly united West is not a sensation at all, especially if you read that remarkable
document, the National Security Strategy of USA. That, in fact, is a wonderful admission that there are now two kinds of nations and two ways of thinking down there. Although the split is not just between one nation and another, it often runs deep across smaller communities and families.
So what do we, the global majority, conclude from that rift? We may start exploring history, so as to discover who has invented the very idea of freedom of speech and discussion, not to mention respect to various religious beliefs. Was it the West? How about Indian experience starting from, maybe, 12thcentury, with Indian experience of
“civilizational cohesion”?
But then, maybe there is no need to dig that deep into history. There was a very recent example of the right approach to freedom of speech, and that was in that good old Times of India. Three European ambassadors have published their collective lamentation there, getting close to a protest against an oncoming visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to India. But they have
got an answer the day after next, since the Russian Ambassador, Denis Alipov, has published his piece in the same newspaper.
Now, let me say it again – it has been published the day after next. It’s technically possible, but is a bit drastic to expect a prominent diplomat to read something in the morning, prepare a coherent answer, call the ToI editors and send them his piece, all within these several working hours. Doing it even in 24 hours, when your President is on his way, is a lot to expect, too. So let me guess: how about the Russian Ambassador being informed in advance that his European colleagues are to contribute their wisdom, and invited to be prepared to state his position.
That’s what respected newspapers and wise civilizations are for: they let everyone have a say. Now, if I was a minor god, would I want to censor the European diplomats, saying that they base their ideas on completely distorted facts, if not on outright lies? Of course I might have wanted that. But a bigger god, that’s ToI, would have restrained me, since censorship is dumb and useless.
One more secondary aspect in that 120-million-euros scandal is interesting. Why are the European political climate-fighters the most vocal ones, demanding of the European government to be firm in “defending the freedom of speech” from the US? The thing is, the Greens in Europe and in the US have long been building their global strategy on totalitarian control over science and information. The victory of Donald Trump in the US was a disaster for that multibillion-dollar scam of preventing the Earth from overheating. And that was not only because the previous administration’s climate policies have been cancelled, but also due to the outrageous reality that you may now talk freely about the relevant data and research, debating and proving your point.
Finally, there is some interesting news from Ukraine, showing what is real censorship. It’s not directly related to the transatlantic battle over values and ideas, it’s rather about totalitarian mind control performed by robots.
The thing is, we are not talking about anything like united America pitted against united Europe. The IT monsters from the US have tried to control the minds in America (in a very European way), and are still at it, being in opposition to the current masters in Washington. But, in the meantime, these monsters have gotten themselves a large contract in Ukraine, sponsored by Europeans and other leftist liberals. The goal is to create something called a sovereign language model, supported by Google-made model of artificial intellect, with relevant neural networks, and clouds, and the rest.
Which, in practice, means that the Ukrainian language, not very popular in Ukraine (Russian is the preferable means of communication), will be generated by a machine that gives users the politically correct phrasing, and also the well-filtered facts and ideas. Historical facts, definitions, old and current figures will all be checked for political correctness and the proper context. You won’t be able to write a piece with the help of that AI or even to search the Net for facts, if you communicate with it in what you think is Ukrainian language. That brainwashing machine is supposed to be an obligatory part of government websites, as well as of schools, universities and other resources.
Mind you, that’s how ideology of Ukraine was being shaped previously. That process has, first, clashed West Ukraine with its East in a bloody civil war. And then it had thrown Ukraine against Russia. These were the living people who were abusing freedom of speech and creating alternative reality. Will the robots be any better?
At the looks of it, that future Ukrainian robotic brainwashing is something like the current owners of European ideology and politics want to use in their territory, not to mention the rest of the world. And it’s very funny to see America confronting all that, but then America has always been a complicated phenomenon.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
