This is just silly.
The Trump administration, the same one that strongarms talk shows off the air because it doesn’t like being made fun of and shakes down media companies for not praising it enough is apparently so concerned about free speech around the world that it’s reportedly launching a new website to help foreigners view content banned by their governments.
It’s pretty clear what the game is here. Rather than a sincere effort to promote democracy and freedom of expression worldwide, it’s more of the conservative voices are being suppressed nonsense that these MAGA types are famous for. The main target seems to be anti hate speech laws in Europe, which should tell you everything you need to know.
The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda, a move Washington views as a way to counter censorship, three sources familiar with the plan said.
The site will be hosted at “freedom.gov,” the sources said. One source said officials had discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user’s traffic appear to originate in the U.S. and added that user activity on the site will not be tracked.
Let us stop right here and join together in a rousing chorus of “Ocean Front Property”, because I ain’t buying that. Trusting a government not to track you is a bit like trusting the dingoes with your baby.
If you do need a VPN, start here.
The Trump administration has made free speech, particularly what it sees as the stifling of conservative voices online, a focus of its foreign policy including in Europe and in Brazil.
Europe’s approach to free speech differs from the U.S., where the Constitution protects virtually all expression. The European Union’s limits grew from efforts to fight any resurgence of extremist propaganda that fueled Nazism including its vilification of Jews, foreigners and minorities.
There’s certainly an argument that can be made about how those laws work and whether or not parts of them are overbroad, but when you get so butthurt by negative press that you investigate “The View”, you don’t get to make it.