I rise today with a deep sense of outrage. I am not concerned or irritated, but outraged at the steady interference of the European Union in democratic elections, including our own. In the recent report on communications between big tech and the European Commission subpoenaed by the US Congress, the facts are clearly documented. Ahead of the 2023 election in Slovakia, TikTok, under EU pressure, censored statements such as "There are only two genders" and “We need to stop the sexualization of young people". These are mainstream political positions yet the EU machinery branded them hate speech. That is ideological policing. The patterns repeat. In Poland, regulators sought the removal of a post stating that electric cars are neither ecological nor economical, which is a simple policy view.

Germany labelled calls to deport criminal offenders as incitement to hatred and pushed for a deletion. This is not moderation. It is the silencing of one side of a political debate. The Digital Services Act guidelines further demand that platforms alter algorithms, suppress disinformation and limit generative AI political content during election periods, rules that applied here not once but twice in 2024 and 2025 for our candidates and voters.

Who decides what counts as harmful for Irish people to hear? It is not the Irish electorate and it is not this Oireachtas. It is unelected officials in Brussels who have shown that they are more than willing to censor speech that is subjectively deemed unacceptable, whether it is on gender, migration, energy or public safety. Democracy cannot function when one side of the debate is muzzled. Ireland’s elections belong to the Irish people, not the EU regulators, not the ideologically aligned NGOs and not the Commission bureaucrats, who believe they can curate political speech for an entire Continent.