(ZENIT News / London, 03.16.2026).- The European Commission launched the initiative in the last week of February, the European Centre for Democratic Resilience, a new body that will ramp-up a complex digital censorship and social control apparatus across the European Union and beyond.
The EU Commission press release announcing the new body called it a “voluntary strategic hub” that will “link together existing networks and structures” for censorship across the European Union, ostensibly to prevent foreign interference in elections. The new body, which is part of EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen’s “Democracy Shield’, will be run out of the EU Commission.
According to its website, the new censorship body will facilitate “research” and “exchange” between EU institutions, Member States, and civil society on identifying and preventing emerging threats to European democracies. It is also intended to be used “beyond our borders” through the resources and embassies of EU member and candidate states.
“Anytime the bureaucrats in Brussels decide they are going to protect Europeans from disinformation, we should be worried,” said Ellen Fantini, Editor at the European Conservative. “This Centre is just their latest censorship tool. When they say they want to ‘support resilient elections’ and protect democracy from ‘information manipulation,’ it simply means they’ll use their power to quash dissent and silence speech they don’t like.”
Those familiar with U.S. censorship and social control programs under the Obama and Biden administration will immediately recognize this rhetoric from the European Union. A congressional investigation concluded in 2024 that the Biden White House and federal agencies conspired with the private sector to monitor and control social and political debates.
The new EU body appears to be modeled on that same complex digital censorship apparatus moderated by the private sector. Specifically, the new EU censorship body mimics the role played by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency Agency (CISA) and the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) through the practice called “switch boarding.”
Federal agencies and private companies were able to flag content for the EIP, which would then be censored across social media platforms. This was carried out under the banner of protecting election integrity through “research” and “exchange.” The European body appears primed to carry out switch boarding across EU governments and private companies.
Another U.S. public-private information control system that the European Union is replicating involves creating media ratings agencies with government funds. These media ratings agencies, the most famous of which is NewsGuard, systematically promote progressive news sources as reliable and label conservative websites as sources of misinformation.
Ursula von der Leyen said the new censorship body will “level up our collective capacity to counter foreign information manipulation and disinformation” and “ensure Europe’s public debate remains open and fair, and empower citizens to participate in democratic life.” She hailed it as a “flagship initiative of the European Democracy Shield.”
Gregor Puppinck, Director of the European Center for Law and Justice, told the Friday Fax that the European Union’s censorship apparatus is intended to have effects beyond Europe’s borders. He also cited the European Union’s cancellation of the Romanian elections on the dubious basis of “foreign interference.”
“The EU is creating a machinery to control freedom of expression, especially on social media. This is a real threat to freedom of expression,” he said. “The EU has already forced META and X to reduce the visibility of political content.”
The new body will ensure compliance with the European Union’s censorship legislation, including the Digital Services Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. Existing implementation guidelines of these laws from the EU commission require governments to suppress political narratives that are critical of open borders and transgender ideology in the very design of new technology and media products.
Upon taking office for a second term on January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump immediately signed two executive orders on Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship and Ending the Weaponization Of The Federal Government, the first substantive acts of the new administration.
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