The head of the VOX delegation in the Euro-Parliament, Jorge Buxadé, has sent a question with a request for a written response to the European Commission in which he denounces the growing ideological censorship being carried out by the tech giants of Silicon Valley.
After recalling several episodes of censorship by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, including the temporary closure of the official VOX account for their political opinions, Buxadé asked the Commission “what is it going to do so that a small group of technology companies based in the US stop interfere with and attempt to shape public debate within the European Union”.
The censorship scandals of foreign multinationals such as Facebook and Twitter, which control almost all the ideas and content exchanged on the social networks used by Europeans, have only intensified in recent years. Just yesterday, both companies blocked the spread of a exclusive to the New York Post on the corruption of the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, Joe Biden.
The large US technology companies concentrate more and more power over the information exchanged on the Internet – 54% of Europeans between 16 and 74 used these social networks last year, according to Eurostat -, which adds to the problem of censorship a monopolistic practices problem. For this reason, Buxadé has asked the Commission what measures it is going to take so that foreign private companies stop controlling the public and private communications of millions of EU citizens.
They are not the only cases. Crowds of politicians, journalists and activists – generally conservative – are being gagged on the internet for the simple act of expressing opinions or sharing information that these companies consider politically incorrect. Donald Trump or the government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary are just some examples. In this sense, Buxadé has also asked the Commission “what you will do against ideological censorship of democratically elected European governments and democratic political forces on the part of private multinationals ”.
