Photo: alen44 via imago-images.de/IMAGO/Depositphotos
Photo: alen44 via imago-images.de/IMAGO/Depositphotos
Ideas
Europe’s Free-Speech Problem
August 21, 2025 | reading time: 11 Min.
American officials are waging a multifront attack on Europe’s approach to free speech. This month, a congressional delegation traveled to Dublin, Brussels, and London to probe and decry European regulations on digital speech. A State Department human-rights assessment issued last week pointed to objectionable “restrictions on freedom of expression” in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. All of this follows Vice President J. D. Vance’s speech in February at the Munich Security Conference, where he accused European leaders of retreating from the continent’s “most fundamental values,” including free expression..