Luis-Vicențiu Lazarus (NI), an independent member of the European Parliament, criticizes the Digital Services Act (DSA), asking when EU leaders will put an end to this censorship, with this ‘truth police’ and with this draconian control they intend to impose on the entire European Union!

“They’ve pointed out that we need to control illegal content. Very nice! It seems normal to me that someone who, I don’t know, plans to sell drugs or weapons or other nonsense and posts it online on some platform should be blocked. If that’s illegal. But from there to assessing fake news, hate speech, and other issues related to the protection of minors, for example, is a long way off. And so I ask myself, what constitutes hate speech? Is it perhaps when people who want to present their electoral platform—some principles, some common-sense ideas— but who disagree with the political establishment in Romania, for example, as was the case with Georgescu or our own case, that of the sovereignists—does that mean we’re posting illegal content because I get the impression we don’t understand what this is all about? And of course, I can’t help but speak out on this issue, on this matter, because we have a problem with TikTok. A big problem with TikTok.

We have some TikTok representatives here in Romania who think this way, so much so that they’re reducing our visibility and limiting our ability to be shared. What’s this all about, guys? What criteria are you using?

There’s been an issue with Ursula von der Leyen lately, I think—it’s been, I don’t know, two or three days now—what do you think people are talking about? About the fact that every person, when they go online and access services—she says, though I’m not sure—access online services, has to show their passport to verify their age. Well, hold on a second—if I show my passport so you can verify my age, obviously there’s a chance you could take all my data. That’s why she says it’s not completely anonymous. But how am I supposed to know? Well, Ursula, dear, you show me that when I present my passport to go online or access services—she says she’s made an app.

I don’t know how much that app cost, paid for with our money, all of us citizens, all European countries. So, you made this app, very nice, no problem at all, but in order to access platforms or all kinds of online services, we have to sign up in the app so that the app can see that, based on our passport or ID, we’re over 18 years old, so we’re adults. So we’re aware of what’s going on.

That’s how she thinks she’ll protect minors. There was a big discussion because, indeed, all sorts of terrible things have happened online. For various reasons—because those poor children aren’t being supervised anymore, which is another discussion in itself: why aren’t children being supervised anymore?—because parents don’t know what to do first, they don’t know whether to go to work, whether to put food on the table, whether to supervise the child, or how to cope with the inflation of taxes and the astronomical prices we’re facing—if I were to refer exclusively to Romania.

But we have a similar problem in other European Union countries as well. And now I’m here to ask the question. Ursula, when you developed this app, did you ask anyone where the money spent on it was coming from? One. Two, what guarantee do you give us that when we log into that app—which is currently optional, but tomorrow or the day after might become mandatory—it won’t be mandatory? Because that’s how it is in the European Union. First, you’re told it’s not mandatory until you reach the point—as was the case with the vaccine—where it becomes mandatory. And if it becomes mandatory, what are we supposed to do?

Because you haven’t clarified in any way whether this app you’re trying to impose on all European countries—and beyond—is safe.

I agree with protecting minors; I agree that there should be no illegal content, but I do not agree with all sorts of fact-checkers coming in and acting as the truth police, telling me what is true and what is not, labeling my speech as hate speech or not, and categorizing it completely absurdly. Because I have never told anyone to hit themselves over the head with a stick or to hit someone else over the head with a stick.

I have never incited hatred; I have never done anything completely out of line. I simply stated some facts, and yet my content was removed from TikTok. A TikTok that has been constantly under attack, and there is evidence of this, including in the U.S. report by the House Judiciary Committee, where I was present and spoke with them last month.

All the evidence is there that this European Commission interfered in the Romanian elections and that it interferes and has attempted to interfere even with the freedom of speech rights of American citizens. The height of irony. So, when are we going to put an end to this censorship? When are we going to put an end to this “truth police”? And when do you plan to end this draconian control that you intend to impose on the entire European Union and beyond?” said Luis-Vicențiu Lazarus (NI), an independent member of the European Parliament.

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