News Round-Up: EU Opened 'Disinformation' Proceedings Against X, Germans Fear To Speak Their Minds and Covid Vaccines Bought for Billions Thrown Away

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:

• The European Commission opened an "illegal content" procedure against Elon Musk's X – because of 'disinformation' spread there, they claim.

• Only 40% of Germans dare to express their opinion freely.

• Billions of euros worth of Covid vaccines have been thrown away in Europe.

• British government guidance offers teachers some protection against trans ideology.

• Hypocritical behaviour: a well-known climate activist, London mayor Sadiq Khan, promoted airline for business class tickets.

The European Commission opened an "illegal content" procedure against Elon Musk's X – because of 'disinformation' spread there, they claim

"Today we open formal infringement proceedings against X,” European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton announced on Monday via his own X account. He added that the proceedings concern "illegal content" and the spread of "disinformation" on the platform. The procedure also includes an obligation for the X platform to be "transparent", Breton added.

European Commission internal market commissioner Thierry Breton announced proceedings against X on his X account. Photo: screenshot.

This is the first time that the Commission has opened formal proceedings under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA, which came into force in August, subjected social media platforms in the EU to new rules and obliged them to quickly remove "illegal content" from their platforms when notified. If social media platforms do not comply with the DSA rules, they could face hefty fines – up to 6% of the platform's global turnover. For example, X (formerly Twitter) had a turnover of $4.4 billion, or €4 billion, in 2022. 6% of that would be $264 million, or €240 million. The European Commission will also have the power under the new rules to close down a platform in case of non-compliance. However, the problem is that the definition of "illegal content" is very vague in the legislation and, as we can see from the instigated procedure, can also include posts that the authorities consider to be ‘misinformation’ or 'disinformation'. At the same time, we have ample experience from recent years that posts that were stigmatised and removed as 'misinformation' or 'disinformation' by social media platforms, at the instigation of the authorities or on the basis of their instructions, were in fact oftentimes completely truthful and were only restricted because they were considered inappropriate by the authorities for some reason. We have written about such social media censorship before, e.g. here, here, here, and here, and about DSA as a new tool to restrict freedom of expression in Europe at length here.

As for the latest proceedings, X, owned by Elon Musk, who is well known for his support for freedom of speech, has announced that it will cooperate with the Commission. "X is focused on creating a safe and inclusive environment for all users on our platform while protecting freedom of expression, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards this goal," the company said.

The fact that the Commission has taken action against X was actually to be expected, as the company's relationship with the European Commission has been strained for some time. We've previously written how the same Mr. Breton warned X long before the DSA came into force that the platform could be subject to proceedings. For example, in May, when the platform, then still called Twitter, decided to withdraw from the EU's voluntary agreement to combat misinformation, Breton said, referring to the imminent entry into force of the DSA: "You can run, but you can't hide. Our teams are ready for enforcement."

In October, the Commission opened an investigation into X and other social media platforms under the DSA, accusing the platforms of spreading "misinformation", "terrorist content" and “hate speech” linked to the Israeli-Hamas conflict. X removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts from the platform and the issue subsided.

Breton's announcement that proceedings had now been opened on X was also commented on by the platform's owner Elon Musk. "Are you taking action against other social media?" he asked. "Because if you have those issues with this platform, and none are perfect, the others are much worse,” he commented.

Many X-users, in turn, referred to Breton and Musk in response to, for example, recent news that content on Mark Zuckerberg's Meta-owned platforms Facebook and Instagram enabled child sexual abuse and human trafficking.

Only 40% of Germans dare to express their opinion freely

Fewer and fewer people in Germany feel they can express their political opinions freely, Zeit Online reports. A survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research and Media Tenor, a media research institute, found that freedom of opinion as perceived by the German population has reached its lowest level since the 1950s.

44% of respondents admitted that they have to be careful about expressing their opinions freely and only 40% said they believed they could still express their political opinions freely. The authors of the survey point out that while 78% of Germans felt that freedom of expression was OK when the Berlin Wall came down in 1990, since then the proportion of people in society who felt this way has steadily declined and is now at an all-time low.

While 40% of Germans say they can speak their minds freely, 44% say that they feel they should be cautious of what they say. Photo: screenshot.

Among younger people, the feeling of being able to express their opinion is slightly higher – 50% of respondents aged 16-29 said they could speak freely. However, this figure is only 36-38% for all older age groups, with a majority of 45-59 year-olds, 51%, saying they should be cautious about expressing their political views, compared to 32% of 16-29 year-olds.

Billions of euros worth of Covid vaccines have been thrown away in Europe

European Union countries have thrown away at least 215 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at an estimated cost of €4 billion, according to an analysis by Politico. However, Politico points out that these figures are almost certainly underestimates, meaning that the actual loss is much higher.

Since the end of 2020, more than 1.5 billion vaccine doses have arrived in EU countries, which is more than three doses for each person in Europe. However, on average, Member States have thrown away 0.7 doses of vaccine per every person in their country. Estonia leads the way with 1.1 vaccine doses per capita or nearly 1.5 million doses. At the bottom of the table is Ireland, with only 0.16 vaccine doses per capita, or 850,000 in total. In terms of absolute numbers, Germany has the highest number of vaccine doses discarded – around 83,000,000.

Europeans paid billions of euros for Covid vaccines that have now been thrown away. Photo: Mika Baumeister.

On one hand, these numbers may indicate that people increasingly perceive the health risks associated with injecting these vaccines and their low effectiveness against Covid. On the other hand, it is also becoming clear to more and more people that Covid is dangerous for those in a limited risk group, particularly the elderly, rather than for younger healthy people who are also reluctant to continue Covid-vaccinations.

The problem of surplus vaccine doses was particularly acute in the first half of this year. As there were no longer any takers for the vaccine, there were large surpluses. At the same time, the European Commission had signed contracts with pharmaceutical companies to supply hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine, but no country had anything left to do with them. In May, the European Commission agreed with Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech that the drug companies would not supply as many vaccines as originally contracted – 900 million doses for these companies, about half of which had been delivered. However, for each cancelled dose, Member States had to pay a separate fee, the amount of which was not disclosed.

British government guidance offers teachers some protection against trans ideology

The UK government has come out with guidance for schools on how teachers should treat so-called transgender pupils, or boys who say they are girls and vice versa. According to the guidelines, teachers cannot be forced to use pupils' chosen pronouns or accept the child's request for 'social transition', i.e. become transgender.

If, for any reason, a pupil has a desire to be perceived as a representative of the opposite sex, school staff will now have to consider whether this desire has been influenced in any way by social media or peer pressure. They must also now talk to the student's parents about this. The school's failure to inform parents of such issues in a timely manner, particularly under pressure from activists, has caused many problems in the past.

It is also clear now that, even if the 'social transition' is satisfied, i.e. a boy is allowed to pretend to be a girl or vice versa, toilets and changing rooms will remain gender segregated, i.e. a boy who thinks he is a girl will not be allowed in the girls' changing rooms and toilets. Shared physical education classes for teenagers, where boys who think they are girls would participate in the same practices as girls, can only be organised if it is safe for the girls.

UK Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch commented that teaching children that they may have been born in the "wrong body", i.e. the "wrong sex", is harmful. She said that so far, trans issues have been discussed in classrooms, but parents have been excluded from these discussions. Badenoch said it is also important to protect freedom of speech so that certain terminology is not forced on others.

However, several other Conservatives see the guidance as too weak, in particular since pupils are not completely banned from 'social transitioning' to the opposite sex. Critics include former prime minister Liz Truss and former home secretary Suella Braverman.

On the other hand, the code is also criticised by the so-called "trans activist" circles and some activist schools.

Hypocritical behaviour: a well-known climate activist, London mayor Sadiq Khan, promoted airline for business class tickets

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London who constantly talks about the climate crisis and promotes limiting free movement in the name of the climate, signed a contract with United Airlines last year under which he was to promote the company in return for business class airline tickets for his visit to the United States, reports The Telegraph.

The agreement, which the city government previously denied, gave United Airlines the right to display the company's logo at events Khan attended for the duration of his visit. Khan also posed for a joint photo with United Airlines pilots at Heathrow Airport with a United Airlines plane in the background. Khan posted the photo on his official account on social media platform X and added approvingly that United Airlines flies to the United States 22 times a day.

London mayor Sadiq Khan promoting United Airlines on his X account. Photo: screenshot.

The same statement was repeated in a press release issued by the municipality, which added: "United Airlines is proud to be flying the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and his team on their trade mission to the United States."

In return for delivering these messages, Khan and his entourage received business class tickets to the US for the duration of their visit, as well as to fly around the US and back home again. The entourage included journalists from The Guardian, The Times, BBC, Evening Standard, and ITV on some of the flights.

It seems odd that a politician elected by the people of the city to lead the city in their best interests would make such deals with private companies, but what seals the deal with Khan is the sheer amount of hypocrisy involved. Indeed, Khan is an extraordinarily active climate change campaigner, constantly talking about the need to protect clean air and reduce carbon emissions. Among other things, he has vehemently opposed the expansion of the same Heathrow airport, saying that flights should be reduced in order to reduce CO2 emissions. In addition, in his fight against climate change, Khan is imposing 'Ultra Low Emission Zones' (ULEZs) by restricting the free movement of motorists in London. To enter the ever-expanding Ulez zone, in case your car does not meet the required criteria, will bring a fee of £12.5, or €14.58 per day, at the current tariff. Petrol cars qualify only if produced in 2005 or later, while diesel cars qualify if produced in 2015 and later.

In the summer, Khan and King Charles III also set off a climate alarm clock, warning that the world has only a few short years left to act to limit global warming. The clock is counting down to 2030, which means that, according to the clock's logic, things will be very bad if no action has been taken by then to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era as was set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.