U.S. House Judiciary Committee is highly critical of the European Commission’s decade-long campaign of Global Internet Censorship.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, republican-led, released its 160-page interim staff report on February 3, 2026, titled “The Foreign Censorship Threat, Part II: Europe’s Decade-Long Campaign to Censor the Global Internet and How it Harms American Speech in the United States.” This follows a July 2025 Part I report and draws from subpoenaed internal documents from major platforms including Meta, Google, TikTok, and X.
The report claims that the European Commission (EC) has, over a decade, pressured tech companies to adopt global content moderation policies that suppress lawful political speech – including in the U.S. – under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and related initiatives.
Core Allegations and Mechanisms
The report states that the EC’s efforts began in 2015 with the EU Internet Forum (EUIF) to counter online terrorism but which was expanded to target “borderline content” (non-illegal but potentially harmful speech linked to extremism). Tools used were such as voluntary codes (2016 Hate Speech Code, 2018/2022 Disinformation Code), the 2023 EUIF Handbook on Borderline Content, which lists categories like populist rhetoric, anti-government/anti-EU/anti-elite views, political satire, anti-migrant/Islamophobic/refugee sentiment, anti-LGBTQI/trans/gendered content, and meme subculture. It also includes the DSA (fully enforced 2024), imposing fines up to 6% of global revenue and requiring risk assessments, transparency, and moderation of systemic risks.
Over 100 closed-door EC meetings since 2020 took place in order to coerce platforms to update global rules, downrank or remove content worldwide. Examples include censoring true information on COVID-19 origins/vaccines, migration policies, transgender issues, and election-related views. Platforms reportedly complied to avoid penalties, applying EU standards extraterritorially and infringing U.S. First Amendment protections.
Election Interference
The report documents EC pressure before multiple European elections.
Before the Slovakia election in 2023 TikTok censored statements like “there are only two genders” or “LGBTI ideology is a threat” and labeled that as “hate speech,” despite their prevalence in local debates. Netherlands in 2023 and 2025, France, Moldova, Ireland in 2024 and 2025) among others there were urgent requests via “trusted flaggers” (NGOs, national ministries) to moderate populist/conservative content. Before the EU elections in June 2024 platforms refined algorithms and reduced “disinformation” visibility per EC guidelines.
The most aggressive case cited is Romania‘s 2024 presidential election. Populist independent Călin Georgescu won the first round (~22.9%) on November 24, 2024. Romanian intelligence alleged Russian-orchestrated TikTok promotion via ~25,000 accounts. The Constitutional Court annulled results on December 6, citing foreign interference and distorted fairness. A rescheduled May 2025 vote favored an establishment candidate.
Subpoenaed TikTok documents contradict the claims: TikTok found “no evidence” of a coordinated 25,000-account Russian network or foreign state involvement, identifying only limited domestic pro-Georgescu activity (<2,000 followers in one case). TikTok resisted global removals of private pro-Georgescu posts on free speech grounds, using geo-blocks per court orders instead. Despite this, the EC launched rapid DSA actions: urgent RFIs, roundtables, and a formal investigation into TikTok’s moderation on December 17, 2024. Romanian authorities and NGOs flagged content globally, targeting views on migration, LGBTQ issues, elections, and the annulment.
TikTok censored over 45,000 alleged misinformation items pre-EU elections, including gender-critical opinions.
The report argues these steps – based on unproven foreign interference – enabled suppression of populist speech under “disinformation” pretexts, exemplifying broader EU election interventions disadvantaging conservatives.
Global policy changes censored U.S. users on vaccines, elections, and satire. The report notes X’s non-cooperation led to a €120 million DSA fine and related enforcement.
The authors recommend U.S. laws to separate EU/U.S. moderation and counter extraterritorial influence.
The European Commission reject the claims as “unfounded,” stating the DSA promotes transparency, combats illegal content/hate speech/disinformation, and does not mandate censorship of lawful speech.
The full report is available here.
