by Matt Taibbi and Kathleen McCook at Racket News
Since J.D. Vance’s speech in Munich on February 14th, European internet regulations have been at issue. The Racket Library attempts to compile pertinent documents in one place, by theme, with the aid of readers. If you think a document or regulation should be on this list but is not, please write to library@racket.news.
This list is far from complete. It will be updated and is meant to be understood as an introduction to the overall timeline of U.S.-European relations with regard to civil liberties, censorship, and hate speech laws. We’ve elected to speed past early efforts to define Internet law like France’s 2004 LCEN, or Loi pour la confiance dans l’économie numérique, which lacked the muscle and ambition of later counterparts.
Aggressive European speech laws began to be implemented in the mid-2010s. Though American officials were often sympathetic and hoped to implement similar ideas here, these efforts were generally rebuffed, as “experts” observed that the First Amendment made EU-style laws an impossibility. European rights guarantees are often framed as “freedom of expression, but,” as in the case of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It calls the “free communication of ideas” “precious… except what is tantamount to the abuse of this liberty.” Americans consider their rights inherent.
The difference didn’t matter, until recently. Now, it matters a lot.
Again, to submit documents to the timeline, please write to library@racket.news. Some key moments on the road to the current standoff: