The EU Commission wants to turn China's back on internet censorship

Published June 1, 2024 at 10:40 a.m.

EU. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised to build advanced technical solutions and a new EU agency for online censorship after the Czech Republic singled out the alternative media channel Voice of Europe as a front for the Kremlin. Now a Chinese model firewall is being proposed which should be able to quickly and effectively censor, for example, alternative media.

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During a visit to Copenhagen on May 14, von der Layen presented the “European Democracy Shield” initiative, which is described as a firewall to protect traditional media and other credible sources from competition from what she calls potential “foreign influence”.

The initiative comes at a time when the EU left is facing increased pressure from its national left-wing establishments to protect them from competition from right-wing populists, not least in Germany where the AFD, which is going to elections on a return trip, is growing in popularity.

Von der Leyen does not mention China himself, but rather highlights the initiative as a European equivalent to France's anti-foreign online interference authority, VIGINUM. The neoconservative think tank Europan Council of Foreign Relations does the same in its analysis of the upcoming censorship.

von der Leyen believes that Europe now needs a dedicated technical solution to counter foreign interference, as well as a function that gathers the necessary expertise and coordinates with existing national authorities.

Von der Leyen says she wants to strengthen the ability to detect and blocking “harmful content” at the EU level, building on existing frameworks such as the Digital Services Act and upcoming AI legislation to combat the spread of “disinformation”.

Following allegations of Russian interference in the Czech site Voice of Europe, a temporary crisis group was set up in mid-April to centralize monitoring and censorship with reference to Russia's possible attempt to influence the EU elections in June.

That a permanent such censorship solution is being considered after the election has already been made clear by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

De Croo also wants to expand the EU's prosecutorial mandate to include “threats of foreign interference”, so that whoever spreads disinformation can be prosecuted at EU level. However, the forms for this are still not clear.