DISINFO: The EU has turned into the Soviet Union and launched a Ministry of Truth like in 1984
SUMMARY
The French Minister of Foreign affairs announced restrictions on 'Russian companies that spread disinformation.' According to Paris, this information 'leads to the destabilisation of the entire bloc'. It was said by Stéphane Séjourné but one could think it was pronounced by Mikhail Andreevich Suslov, the Secretary of the Central Committee, responsible for ideology. The ideas defended by Comrades Séjourné and Suslov are absolutely identical. In the Soviet Union there were jammers, the EU is preparing to impose sanctions. The mechanism is different, the goal is the same: the total destruction of the possibility of dissent.
The creation of the "Ministry of Truth" (or, as they say, the imposition of sanctions for the dissemination of information inappropriate for them), the endless search for "enemies of democracy and progress", the constant accusations of their own errors infinitely removed from all this — the very case where Orwell's world of '1984' has become a routine of modern European politics.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin trope asserts the absence of freedom of speech in the EU, depicting it as a new Soviet Union that persecutes dissidents and is doomed to collapse, while portraying Russia as the new free world.
The fact that there is a willingness to counter disinformation does not mean that the EU has a Ministry of Truth or that dissent and information are controlled as they were in the Soviet Union. Comparing Soviet dissidents to today's pro-Kremlin propagandists in the EU is absurd and could be seen as a form of negating of the crimes of the USSR.
The EU is committed to freedom of expression, and Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees that "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) are indeed a reality and the weaponised instruments of state actors like Russia represent a security threat. The EU along with its member state faces the challenge of countering them to preserve a space for democracy to develop without this pressure This was concluded in the first EEAS Report on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats:
the report strongly advocates for a collaborative and community driven approach that enables each member of the FIMI defender community to contribute with their unique skills, insights and perspectives (…) The EU deploys also other important instruments and tools to address FIMI. Among those are the use of restrictive measures, including those imposed against Russia in response to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 The analysis of FIMI actors carried out by the EEAS has informed many measures taken so far.
Furthermore, the EUvsDisinfo database has over 17,000 cases of disinformation from pro-Kremlin outlets, many of which target the EU.
Accusations of censorship and attacks against freedom of expression are a recurring pro-Kremlin technique to defend the illicit actions of Russia’s state-sponsored disinformation outlets after Western authorities adopted measures against them. Claims of “interference” are also frequently raised to deflect any criticism of Russian authorities by international media.
Read also relates cases such as: The EU calls any information it doesn’t like disinformation, or There are greater guarantees of freedom of expression in Russia than in the West, or The EU decision on Russia Today is a step towards self-destruction.