News Round-Up: EU “Disinformation” Rules Threaten Free Speech, Opel Forced To Close Factories Due To Net Zero, and Male Swimmer Finally Stripped of Women’s Titles
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
EU turns voluntary Code of Conduct on Disinformation into a law.
The crisis of freedom of speech in the world is deepening.
Carmaker Opel owner forced to shut factories due to Net Zero policies.
Male swimmer stripped of women’s titles in the US.
UK court says a murderer cannot be deported because rival gang would kill him back home.
EU turns voluntary Code of Conduct on Disinformation into a law
On July 1, 2025, the European Union’s Code of Conduct on Disinformation that was once pitched as a voluntary effort by tech companies to clean up their platforms is now an official requirement under the EU censorship law, the Digital Services Act (DSA), Reclaim The Net writes.
The biggest online platforms and search engines will need to meet strict transparency standards, undergo audits, and show that they can keep what Brussels calls “disinformation” in check. The message is clear enough: fall short during an audit, and expect to hear from the regulators.
Under the new system, platforms labeled as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) will face yearly audits. These audits are supposed to assess how well companies manage the risks linked to disinformation. The Commission made sure to clarify that while signing the Code is technically voluntary, meeting the Code’s standards is expected. A spokesperson explained, “Compliance with the Code is voluntary. Compliance with the DSA is not.”
Carmaker Opel owner forced to shut factories due to Net Zero policies
The owner of Opel (Vauxhall in the UK) has warned the carmaker will be forced to close factories in Europe because of tough Net Zero penalties, The Telegraph writes.
Jean-Philippe Imparato, a senior executive at Stellantis, said European Union carbon emission standards would force the business to make “tough decisions” if nothing is changed this year.
He said the only way to meet the targets would be to double the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) or to scale back production of traditional petrol and diesel cars – known as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
Speaking in Italy, Imparato said: “I have two solutions: either I push like hell [on electric] ... or I close down ICE. And therefore I close down factories.”
The EU emission rules require carmakers to cut the carbon emissions of the vehicles they sell by increasing the proportion of ones that are electric. Those that do not hit the target risk hefty fines.
The crisis of freedom of speech in the world is deepening
According to the recently published Global Expression Report 2025, the state of freedom of expression has improved in only 15 countries, or 4% of the world's population, which amounts to less than 300 million people. In contrast, freedom of expression has deteriorated in at least 77 countries, and for every person whose freedom of expression has improved, there are 19 whose freedom has deteriorated. Only 15% of the world's population lives in countries that are considered open according to the report. Over the past decade, the global freedom of expression index (average score for countries) has fallen by 5 points, while the human index (weighed by population, showing actual impact) has fallen by as much as 9 points.
Denmark (94) tops the ranking of ‘open’ countries, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, and Estonia (all with 93 points). The top ten also includes Finland (90), Latvia (89), and the Czech Republic (89).
The ‘in crisis’ countries ranking is led by North Korea (0), followed by Nicaragua (1), Belarus (1), Eritrea (1), Turkmenistan (2), China (2), Myanmar (2), Afghanistan (2), Syria (2) and Russia (3). According to the report, there are 43 countries with freedom of speech crises, but only 35 that are open.
Male swimmer stripped of women’s swimming titles in the US
Transgender swimming champion Lia Thomas, formerly Will Thomas, will be stripped of University of Pennsylvania swimming titles after the Ivy League school bowed to the pressure from the Trump administration, NY Post reports.
The university will also issue formal apologies to every biological female competitor who lost out to a transgender competitor, following an investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
The probe found UPenn violated Title IX by “allowing a male to compete in female athletic programs and occupy female-only intimate facilities.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The resolution agreement signed by the university will require it to undertake a host of additional actions, including adopting “biology-based definitions for ‘male’ and ‘female’ under Title IX” and issuing a public statement that it will no longer allow biological men to compete in female athletic programs or occupy women-only locker rooms.
UK court says a murderer cannot be deported because rival gang would kill him back home
An unnamed migrant – who has resided in the UK since 1996 and committed murder – has mounted a legal fight for protection in Britain, The Telegraph reports. He argued that Britain must grant him asylum and not deport him back to Jamaica on human rights grounds because he would be “targeted” by the One Order.
The Home Office tried to deport him and he lost an initial appeal against their decision at a first-tier immigration tribunal. But he has now won an appeal at the Upper Tribunal, which ruled he could be at risk from the said gang if returned. The Upper Tribunal found the lower court had “overlooked” key concerns about potential dangers for him in Jamaica and had not properly assessed his “credibility”. It ruled that his case must be heard again.
The case is the latest revealed by The Telegraph where foreign criminals have used Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to claim they would face persecution if deported. Ministers are planning to rewrite rules to make it harder to allow appeals against removal.
This is going to be difficult, disinformation rules? Everybody knows that the largest disinformation centres are the governments themselves, ably helped by the MSM. If they are really serious, we should be in for a very peaceful time.