EU bureaucrats lashing out as social media displaces legacy media: Allum Bokhari
Managing Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online Allum Bokhari tells Ezra Levant why the political 'elites' in the European Union are frightened by the power of American tech and social media companies.
On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Allum Bokhari discussed how bureaucrats within the European Union are attempting to clamp down on free speech online as legacy media narratives face increasing scrutiny from the diversity of viewpoints on social media.
Bokhari noted the EU’s staggering €120-million fine on X, issued on Friday under the controversial Digital Services Act. The EU accused X of using a "deceptive" blue checkmark authentication system because the platform reportedly doesn't "meaningfully" verify users.
Bokhari explained that he believes politicians within the EU are attempting to cling to control of narratives as legacy media continues to lose influence to social media. He noted the explosion of podcasts during the 2024 American election along with the surging popularity of X.
"They've almost displaced the mainstream, legacy media now. People go to X for their news. It's the number one news app in almost every country at the moment," Bokhari said.
"So it's no wonder that bureaucrats in the European Union would like to control it and would like to use their vast regulatory powers to get to grips with this platform," he continued.
"Because the political establishment was used to this very comfortable, multi-decade period where they had a very compliant mainstream media, legacy media that controlled the bounds of acceptable debate. And now social media has just thrown debate open to every perspective you can imagine and it's not something that bureaucrats can easily control," Bokhari said.
"The purpose of the European Union's Digital Services Act is to restore control that political elites feel they've lost because of the online media displacing legacy media," he added.
X has blocked the European Commission from making advertisements on its platform, a move purportedly in response to the massive fine issued by the EU last week.
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COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-12-11 20:47:34 -0500Using social media cuts into the profits of the traditional news services. -
Bruce Atchison commented 2025-12-11 15:22:01 -0500I love Ezra’s idea of banning censorious-thug-elitists. People love our wealth but some want to destroy it with their necrotic notions.
