This month, I testified before the U.S. Congress to deliver a warning every American should hear: Europe’s Digital Services Act is not just some distant European law. This is a censorship framework with far reaching implications for free speech across the globe.  

Unless Americans pay attention, our free speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment could be undermined — not from Washington, but from unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. 

As I told Congress, Europe offers a cautionary tale of how quickly governments can trade liberty for the illusion of safety. Laws disguised as protection from “hate speech” and “disinformation” are increasingly used to silence dissenting voices. The Digital Services Act is the most sweeping and dangerous example yet. 

Passed in 2022 and fully in force as of last year, the law is sold as a way to create “a safer digital space.” In practice, it hands the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, sweeping powers to dictate what the world can say, read and share online. 

This law compels very large online platforms and search engines, such as Google, X, YouTube and TikTok, to remove “illegal content.” But “illegal content” is defined by EU or national law, which includes notoriously vague categories such as “hate speech” and “disinformation.” By design, these terms are vaguely defined and can and — already have been — stretched to silence lawful, peaceful expression.

Even worse, the law deputizes so-called “trusted flaggers,” such as non-governmental organizations, third-party regulators and private entities, to identify offending content. Platforms must act on these reports swiftly or face the enormous penalty of up to 6 percent of global revenue or even suspension. With fines this severe, companies will censor first and ask questions later, removing lawful speech rather than risk financial punishment or shutdown.

My message to Americans is simple: Brussels cannot be allowed to silence your speech. Because the internet has no borders, the impact of the Digital Services Act reaches far beyond Europe. A post that is fully lawful and constitutionally protected under the First Amendment can still be taken down if it runs outside of EU censorship rules.

In effect, this law has the potential to impose European restrictions straight over American content. Further, companies are naturally incentivized to homogenize their content moderation, using European standards as the global benchmark for acceptable content. In one highly publicized episode, European Commissioner Thierry Breton sent a letter to Elon Musk, urging compliance with the law, threatening to block an interview with then-former President Trump.  

X held firm, and the interview was available to be seen in Europe. But the chilling reality of what Breton sought to accomplish cannot be overstated.

The Digital Services Act may have been written in Brussels, but its global effects are already coming to light. Its defenders remain adamant that censorship is needed to keep the internet “safe.” Breton recently wrote for the Guardian, justifying the EU’s online censorship regime as Europe sovereign right, going so far as to liken it to airspace regulation. But the goal of airspace regulation is to prevent midair collisions. This law polices opinions, satire, and political dissent, along with other peaceful expression. There simply is no valid comparison here.  

Breton is right on one point. As he states, “An ever-widening gulf of misunderstanding is opening up between and the U.S. on digital regulation.” The gulf is indeed enormous — as Europe tightens down on censorship, America is recommitting to its free speech roots.  

In my testimony, I also shared experiences from Europe that show that these powers are real, far-reaching, and often applied in ways that suppress lawful expression. 

Americans cannot afford to treat the Digital Services Act as a distant European curiosity. In Europe, headlines break weekly with stories of individuals being silenced, arrested and even criminally prosecuted for peaceful expression online.

Take the case of Päivi Räsänen, long-serving parliamentarian and grandmother in Finland who has been criminally prosecuted for six years for a Bible-verse tweet expressing her Christian views on marriage and sexuality. On Oct. 30 she heads to Finland’s Supreme Court with the legal support of my organization for her third trial. While she has been prosecuted under her country’s national “War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity law,” we could see many more of these kinds of baseless prosecutions if this European internet censorship law is left unchecked.

The Trump administration has responded to the threat with gusto, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on diplomats across Europe to make this a top priority.  

The Digital Services Act is already shaping the digital space Americans inhabit. Now is the time for the U.S. to keep the pressure up in defense of free speech before online censorship becomes the global standard. 

Lorcán Price is an Irish barrister and legal counsel at ADF International.