US Congress holds hearing on EU censorship: Live updates
The US House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on “Europe’s threat to American speech and innovation.” The panel is looking into what it calls a global censorship regime imposed by the EU under the guise of fighting “disinformation.”
The hearing is taking place one day after the committee published a lengthy report detailing European Commission pressure on tech companies – first with ‘voluntary’ agreements and then with laws such as the Digital Services Act – into demoting and removing legal but “borderline” speech. Content that went against Brussels’ position on Covid-19 and the Ukraine conflict was targeted, as was “anti-migrant,” “populist,” and “anti-elite” messaging.
By forcing platforms to censor this content for all users, the EU directly restricted the free speech rights of Americans, Republicans on the committee argue. The committee has also singled out the UK’s Online Safety Act as unfairly impacting Americans.
Witnesses at the hearing include Irish comedian Graham Linehan, who was arrested by British police last year for anti-transgender posts on X, and Irish lawyer Lorcan Price of Alliance Defending Freedom International, a Christian legal advocacy group.
04 February 2026
16:34 GMT“Did the Biden administration censor people?” Jordan asks Mayell, after Rep. Jerry Nadler and Mayell spend another five minutes condemning ICE.
Mayell refuses to answer, telling Jordan he’ll only talk about the situation in Minnesota.
- 16:25 GMT
There are two parallel hearings happening here. Jordan and the Republicans are sticking to the theme of censorship in Europe, while Raskin and the Democrats are focused entirely on ICE.
“We’re having another hearing about the imaginary threat to the transphobic material of Irish comedians…and we can’t seem to have a hearing about ICE agents shooting Americans in the face,” Raskin shouts, before allowing Mayell to describe the “authoritarian and violent” tactics of ICE agents in Minnesota.
- 16:14 GMT
Raskin’s witness is Deepinder Singh Mayell of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Minnesota branch. He focuses his statement on the ICE crackdown in his state, accusing federal agents of killing two Americans for exercising their First Amendment right to protest.
“We urge you to demand that federal forces withdraw from Minnesota now,” he tells the committee.
- 16:00 GMT
“Gender ideology and free speech cannot coexist,” Linehan tells the hearing.
He mentions reports of male rapists in US women’s prisons, men in women’s sports in Ireland, and the British government refusing to implement a court ruling confirming that a person’s sex is a biological reality because it’s “trans-exclusive.”
“If the British government can ignore its own Supreme Court to appease gender activists, so can yours,” he warns.
- 15:48 GMT
The DSA “is the tip of a massive censorship industrial complex,” Price tells the committee.
The EU uses the act as a tool to “eliminate free speech” worldwide, by threatening companies like X with punitive fines for failing to remove illegal content, he continues, pointing out that “in Europe, illegal content can mean calling a German politician an idiot.”
“Free speech is such a threat to the European elites that they will either cripple X with fines and investigations, break up the company, or force them to bend the knee at the altar of censorship.”
- 15:38 GMT
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, the most senior Democrat on the committee, is using his opening statement to attack President Donald Trump and his “masked agents” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Raskin doesn’t mention Europe once, instead recounting tales of ICE agents shooting protesters in Minnesota.
“We’ve subpoenaed foreign companies over censorship abroad, but look what’s happening here before our own eyes,” he declares, before accusing Jordan of protecting “Epstein pal” Elon Musk from Europe’s “proactive” regulations.
- 15:25 GMT
Finnish parliamentarian Dr. Paivi Rasanen joins Linehan and Price as a witness. Rasanen is on trial for “hate speech” over a 2019 tweet in which she accused her church of “elevating shame and sin” over its sponsorship of a gay pride parade.
- 15:21 GMT
The threat of legal action under the EU’s Digital Services Act directly influenced social media platforms’ terms of service. TikTok explicitly states that its current community guidelines were drafted “to achieve compliance with the Digital Services Act.”
“And what did TikTok censor in the US to placate the Europeans?” Jordan asks. “TikTok censored true information and political speech on topics like immigration in the US because of European censorship demands.”
- 15:10 GMT
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan opens the hearing by reading former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton’s 2024 letter to Elon Musk, threatening Musk with legal action for broadcasting an interview with Donald Trump – which took place on American soil – on X.
“Here’s someone from the European Commission writing an American citizen, about an American company, and about the American presidential election,” Jordan states.
“This hearing is about whether American speech is being silenced by regulators across the pond in Brussels, and the truth is, that’s happening.”
