In an effort to bolster the dwindling support for their policies, the Western authorities are blatantly jeopardising Freedom of Speech and have begun massive campaigns to isolate, censor and punish those who call into question their narratives. In Germany, this involves not only statements on the Ukraine War labelled Russian propaganda, but also satirical remarks concerning members of Government.

Several months ago, the montage of an image of German Economic Minister Robert Habeck and underneath it the words professional idiot (a humorous take on a well-known advertisement) prompted a house search of the author of an X post and a media campaign against him for insulting a Cabinet minister and spreading hatred. Shortly thereafter, the case was abruptly dropped for lack of grounds.

Recently, a court in Bamberg (Bavaria) sentenced David Bendels, the Editor of the Deutschland-Kurier (close to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party), to a suspended jail term of seven months because of a meme of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. The image posted on X showed the minister holding a poster with the words “I hate free speech”, and it was quite obvious that it had been manipulated for satirical purposes. According to sources close to the government, the Police in Bamberg found that the meme violated the recent hate speech, as well as EU digital services, rules. The Police also asked Faeser whether she wanted to proceed legally, which she did.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the EU, referred in this case, were officially introduced to oblige large tech platforms and social networking sites to strictly moderate contents and also delete illegal contents. What sounds harmless at first could turn out to be a dangerous encroachment on Freedom of Expression. Companies that violate the new EU rules face severe fines of up to 10% of their global annual turnover. In the event of a repeat offense, the penalty can rise to 20%. It, more or less, prompts social networking platforms to delete too much rather than too little when in doubt, with devastating consequences for the culture of open debate. At this point, for example, even quoting official statements by Russian officials, without refuting them, is suppressed by a growing number of media houses.

Another alarming development are reports that in the agreement just struck by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) on the formation of a Coalition Government, they call for making it a crime to spread false claims, since free speech apparently does not cover lies.

The problem is, who is to decide what is true and what is false? It is a very slippery slope indeed.

This article was first published in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) Strategic Alert weekly newsletter (Volume 39, No. 16-17) on April 17, 2025.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das