O Instituto iniciou uma petição para a destituição do Comissário do Mercado Interno Thierry Breton, depois de declarações suas relativas a Elon Musk com o intuito de promover a censura ideológica e a perseguição política.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/petition/content/1044%252F2024/html/Petition-No%25C2%25A01044%252F2024-by-Miguel-Silva-%2528Portuguese%2529%252C-on-behalf-of-Trezeno-Institute-%2528Lisbon%2529%252C-on-European-Commission%2527s-energies-to-regulate-X-through-the-Digital-Services-Act-and-asking-the-resignation-of-Commissioner-Breton
A petição foi aprovada mas o Comissário acabou por se demitir antes que ela pudesse ter efeito: STAMPED_1044.24. EN
“On August 12th, Commissioner Breton published a letter sent to businessman Elon Musk, with veiled threats of censorious reprisals and legal action, were the latter to carry out his plans to publicly interview former US President Trump on platform X/Twitter.
The act alone constitutes an egregious attempt at public censorship as well as intimidation and interference in the domestic political process of another state.
In veiled language, the Commissioner defames the reputation of both Musk and Trump by insinuating a connection between them and public disorder events in the United Kingdom which both have condemned and have no association with whatsoever. He hypocritically claims to defend freedom of expression and media freedom while seeking to condition them under the guise of combating ‘disinformation’ and ‘hatred’ – both terms remaining undefined and subjective.
In addition, the Commissioner invokes the Digital Services Act as an instrument to censor large online platforms without distinction between ‘publisher’ and ‘platform’. This is a fraudulent avenue to effectively allow the Commission to control public language according to its arbitrary criteria and in detriment of the freedom of expression of EU member-states citizens. Would the Commissioner issue similar letters to Commission owned or financed media? Are these independent? Would he seek to warn internet providers that their services could be used to promote racism as well? In any society governed by the rule of law, the true responsibility for incitement lies solely with its perpetrator. Publications have an editorial line whereas platforms and service providers are very much not supposed to be biased.
The Commissioner’s actions constitute libel, violate sovereignty and completely disregard the principles of subsidiarity and institutional balance. Not only do his actions besmirch the reputation of the Commission but they also leave it vulnerable to potentially onerous legal proceedings as well as diplomatic retribution.
Most importantly, they injure the fundamental rights of the continent’s citizens to information and expression.”
