On Europe’s Mounting Free Speech Crisis
I was recently invited by a center-left German think tank to write about Europe’s free speech recession and spoke about it at the UK’s Battle of Ideas festival.
I have long shouted from the rooftops about the free speech recession in European democracies. But those most receptive to this message are often Americans who look to Europe to vindicate (or gloat about) American (constitutional) free-speech exceptionalism.
Europeans, on the other hand, have a remarkable tendency to ignore the glaringly obvious and insist that everything is fine and that if there are problems, these are isolated cases exaggerated by MAGA-types to dunk on the Old World.
So I was very pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung—a German center-left think tank affiliated with the Social Democratic Party—to write an opinion piece at IPG Journal on the state of free speech in Europe, with a special focus on Germany and France.
I hope this can be a small contribution to a much-needed debate about first principles on the continent that bequeathed the idea of free speech to the world in the first place.
Below are some excerpts of the piece, roughly translated from German. I open with a story that sounds almost dystopian:
On the morning of the 26. In November, three armed policemen dived into the Berlin apartment of the US author C. J. Hopkins on. They issued a search warrant, seized his computer and questioned him and his wife. The alleged threat to the German rule of law? The cover of a self-laid book. Hopkins, a contentious left-wing critic of the Covid-19 policy, had mounted a pale swastika behind a face mask to satirically criticise what he perceived as authoritarian tendencies in Germany.
If this were an isolated case, it could be dismissed. But as I write in the piece:
In European countries such as Germany and France, the Hopkins case is no longer an exception. And unlike in the U.S., there is hardly any public protest against the increasing restrictions on freedom of expression.
The scale of enforcement is staggering.
In March 2022, the president of the Federal Criminal Police Office made it unequivocally clear that the state would answer online intolerance with real intolerance: “Whoever posts hate messages must expect that the police will be at the door.” The New York Times reviewed German records in 2022 and found more than 8 500 ongoing investigations into online statements. Since 2018, at least 1 000 people had been charged or punished.
Even more revealing:
In February 2025, many Americans were shocked when they saw a reportage of 60 Minutes accompanying German police and prosecutors cracking down on “online crimes.” Prosecutors smilingly declared that the repost, or even just the “liking” of false or offensive content – such as hate speech, foul denunciation, fake quotes or personal insults – could be punishable. Even calling a politician a “weakhead” or mocking someone with a poop heap emoji could trigger a house search.
In the full piece, I also highlight how things in France aren’t faring much better, with, for example, Emmanuel Macron banning 46 civil society organizations by decree for “language offenses,” which includes sharp government criticism or failure to remove hateful user comments from social media channels.
On the subject of Europe’s free speech recession, I also had the opportunity to speak more about how European democracies are failing on free expression at the Battle of Ideas festival in London.
On my panel, I recount how my own country of Denmark—which had proudly resisted pressure to enact blasphemy laws after the Muhammad cartoon crisis 20 years ago—suddenly reversed course a couple of years ago after Quran burnings. The government introduced a law prohibiting the desecration of sacred texts, essentially caving to what I call “the jihadist veto” after having stood firm for nearly two decades.
I also discuss how the European Court of Human Rights, which should defend free speech, is actually entrenching the free speech recession. The court has ruled that free speech doesn’t protect “gratuitously offensive” statements about religion or hate speech—without clearly defining either term.
Making matters worse, the European Union is now working to harmonize hate speech laws across all member states, pushing countries to criminalize more speech. When Ireland’s problematic hate speech bill collapsed due to criticism, the European Commission wrote to the Irish government saying it was violating EU obligations by not criminalizing hate speech further.
The question I pose at the end of my IPG Journal piece remains urgent:
Has Europe’s crackdown on expressions of opinion become a greater danger to democracy than the extremists it is supposed to contain? The answer to this will not only shape Europe’s future, but the fate of liberal democracy as a whole.
I encourage you to read the full IPG article here to see additional examples illustrating why Europe’s “defensive democracy” could prove a cautionary tale rather than a role model.
And watch my full remarks from the Battle of Ideas festival to hear more about how Europe’s approach to free speech is emboldening authoritarian states worldwide.
For a broader and historical view of the free speech recession, as well as discussions about what’s been happening in the UK, you can check out my recent chat with the Institute of Economic Affairs Podcast here:
Jacob Mchangama is the Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech and a research professor at Vanderbilt University. He is also the author of Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.