In George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, there were four ministries of the government of Oceania: The Ministries of Truth, Peace, Love, and Plenty.
Washington, once a partner under the Biden administration in joint “disinformation” monitoring … has since distanced itself from the EU’s regulatory push.
The Ministry of Peace concerned itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions were neither accidental, nor were they the result of ordinary hypocrisy, they were deliberate exercises in doublethink — a language first explored in Orwell’s work but still employed today in politics and advertising that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Often using euphemisms to make unpleasant truths sound more palatable, its intent is to mislead or confuse the public about the true nature of a situation.
The Ministry of Truth was the ministry of propaganda. And as with the other ministries in the novel, the name “Ministry of Truth” is a deliberate misnomer — it serves the opposite. It is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events to show a government-approved version of events. However, like the other ministries, the name is also apt because it decides what constitutes truth in Oceania as well as seeing to its manufacture. I refer you to the COVID era and the loss of public trust.
The European Union is planning to launch a centralized facility for monitoring and countering what it calls foreign “disinformation,” according to a leaked document seen by Independent View UK. Critics have long warned that Brussels’ initiatives amount to the institutionalization of a censorship regime.
The European Union has been accused of creating Orwellian “ministries of truth” that will ensure “wrong thoughts” are not tolerated in a bid to “cleanse” disinformation from European public exposure.
It is expected that those in charge of online platforms (which must comply with the regulation) will prioritize advice given by EU-approved “trusted flaggers” and fact-checkers monitoring information posted online.
Cristian Terhes, a Romanian MP and Member of the European Parliament, argued that the bloc’s Digital Services Act already provides it with enough power to essentially rule on what content is true and false when it appears on the websites of some of the world’s largest providers.
The European Commission, Terhes added, has taken a page out of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and demanded that EU member states set up government-sponsored “ministries of truth” to ensure that wrong thoughts and banned words are not allowed into the digital space.
‘Surely in a democratic society, it’s the public, who hear or have access to all arguments, who are the ones to make up their mind on the truth or attractiveness of certain facts, ideas, or parties … rather than government bodies.”
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), ostensibly, aims to protect European users when it comes to privacy, transparency, and removal of content deemed illegal or harmful by the European Commission.
The regulation, which was put into effect in 2023, outlines the need for the EU’s 27 member states to set up a network of experienced content assessors with expertise in monitoring unwanted content.
The rules aim to set new standards for policing “hate speech,” disinformation, and counterfeits on the web. All large digital platforms are required to comply.
The new standards were initially implemented to assess how tech giants such as Google and Facebook operate in Europe, but websites and online platforms bringing in 45 million monthly users will also now be included.
Instagram and TikTok are among the 19 platforms that must comply with the special obligations under the regulation.
According to the European Commission proposal, set to be published on November 12, the so-called Centre for Democratic Resilience will function as part of a broader “democracy shield” strategy, advocated for by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the 2024 European elections. At the beginning, participation in the center will be voluntary, and the Commission has welcomed “like-minded partners” outside the bloc, including the UK and countries seeking accession into such measures.
The Commission President specifically accuses Russia of escalating “hybrid attacks” by disseminating allegedly false narratives, while also pointing to China as another threat — alleging that Beijing uses PR firms and social media influencers to advance its interests across Europe.
“By spreading deceitful narratives, sometimes including the manipulation and falsification of historical facts, they try to erode trust in democratic systems,” Independent View UK cited the document as saying.
The Commission frames the move as merely a defensive response to foreign meddling, citing as one example the controversial “necessity” to cancel Romania’s 2024 presidential election because of alleged foreign meddling. However, Telegram founder Pavel Durov noted it was the EU — namely French intelligence — that pressured his company to censor conservative content during elections in Romania and Moldova, condemning the bloc for waging a “crusade” against free speech.
The new center will add to the EU’s growing network of tools to monitor and moderate information available to the public, and is expected to work alongside supposedly “independent” fact-checkers and even coordinate with online influencers to promote content aligned with and conforming to Brussels’ policies and norms.
The proposal fits neatly into the wider enforcement framework of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which mandates the removal of “harmful content” which has itself drawn fierce criticism from free speech advocates regarding its censorship intent.
Washington, once a partner under the Biden administration in joint “disinformation” monitoring through the now-defunct Global Engagement Center, has since distanced itself from the EU’s regulatory push. The U.S. State Department recently described the bloc’s initiatives as “Orwellian,” stating that “censorship is not freedom” and warning that such measures only serve to shield European leaders “from their own people.”
“If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance told the Munich Security Conference in February, referring to the Romanian election. “If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”
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