Thierry Breton, European Union Commissioner for International Markets, recently made some revealing comments to Politico regarding his interpretation of his job: “I am the enforcer…I represent the law, which is the will of the people.” This view characterizing the law as a reflection of the will of the people, as interpreted by politicians and bureaucrats, is at odds with the classical liberal view that the purpose of the law is to protect the people’s natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Under the traditional view the only function of government is to secure and protect those rights; even if doing so conflicts with the will of the people or the of rulers.
Breton was recently in America to make sure American social media companies were prepared for the “the enforcer” to start enforcing the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA). DSA embodies the conflict between Breton’s “progressive” view of the law as implementing the will of the people, even if that means violating individual rights, and the classical liberal version.
The DSA empowers Breton and his fellow EU bureaucrats to make social media companies censor any posts that violate laws of any EU member state. This includes French laws banning hate speech, Finnish laws banning blasphemy, and Turkish laws banning “LGBTQ propaganda.” The law requires social media companies to remove any posts containing “misinformation”, which is code for news or opinions that contradict or embarrasses the political class.