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US sanctions EU government officials behind the DSA
- derelicta 9mo agoSee thats why one needs a sovereign financial and banking system. But tbh, Europeans deserve it, for they use and abuse of sanctions themselves, as some of Swiss citizens can attest.
- looperhacks 9mo agoCan you explain what sanctions impact swiss citizens?
- sakex 9mo ago[flagged]
- simion314 9mo ago>If we don't comply, they will impose sanctions. They are even trying to make gun ownership illegal in Switzerland... UK is the proof that nobody is forced to be part of EU or have good relations with EU. EU also forces food not contain excrements, where is your freedom to buy food with exfements? As you can see I can also say ridiculous things.
- peterfirefly 9mo agoYou can't just hold a referendum to decide the relations between Switzerland and the EU -- the EU also gets to have a say. We have been incredibly patient with Switzerland in this regard but it can't continue. You must respect the agreements we already have with you and you cannot dictate the terms of new agreements with us. (Background: some of the agreements with Switzerland have run out and we need new ones to replace them. Both sides continue as if the old agreements are still valid, Switzerland because it would hurt the country enormously if we didn't, the EU because it avoids antagonizing Switzerland and because it would slightly annoying if we didn't. We can literally take our marbles and go home without breaking any treaties with Switzerland. Many Swiss don't seem to understand that.)
- sakex 9mo agoExactly like Trump is doing to you.
- peterfirefly 9mo agoNo, Trump is breaking existing agreements.
- orwin 9mo agoGun ownership is legal in France, why would EU care about it in Switzerland? Are you sure this information is from a trustworthy source? The rest I see where you're coming from, but this particular bit sounds like propaganda to me.
- derelicta 9mo agoStraight from the horse's mouth: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-intelligence-officer-targeted-by-new-eu-sanctions-on-russia/90665703 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/foreign-affairs/former-swiss-in... Sanctions on Jacques Baud for anti-war activism: https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/180245 https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/1802... Sanctions on Nathalie Camp for of anti-colonialist speech: https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/176443 https://data.europa.eu/apps/eusanctionstracker/subjects/1764...
- drooopy 9mo agoAre you referring to Jacques Baud who has been sanctioned recently because he has been working as a mouthpiece of the russian government?
- newsclues 9mo agoI’ve seen his interviews on YouTube and I’m not sure if he is a Russian asset or just says things contrary to the western narrative. There is a propaganda war. So what hard evidence that he is working for the Russians?
- YY348762378 9mo agoJaques Baud is not a "mouthpiece". He has never appeared on Russian state TV and has taken great pains to avoid citing Russian sources in his analysis. The problem is that what he has been saying about the Ukraine war (that the war is not winnable and peace should be negotiated as soon as possible) is dangerous as to European leadership.
- TheOtherHobbes 9mo agoIt's not remotely dangerous to the European leadership. It is dangerous to EU citizens who are on the receiving end of a campaign to radicalise national governments with far-right Russian-funded puppet regimes which will - clearly, as we can see in the US - be absolutely hostile to existing freedoms.
- modo_mario 9mo agoHonestly I feel like people won't care and the sanctioning helps less and less if it doesn't do the opposite. They feel like repeatedly the baby was thrown out with the bathwater wrt migration and the like despite popular opinion being very much against those. Often getting no genuine choice of opposition that wasn't fringe right. Now I know so many people who will in turn throw out the bathwater containing their national or supranational interests, rule of law (that limited their options), etc. People who one will struggle to reach across the isle... and it was utterly predictable.
- abc123abc123 9mo ago[flagged]
- Phelinofist 9mo agoCan you give examples of the little freedom of speech?
- krior 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...
- OKRainbowKid 9mo agoWhich "leftists" have monopolized the EU? What positions do they have to exert that kind of power, and what parties are they affiliated with? Or is the EPP with the likes of Weber and von der Leyen "leftist" now? You have move quite far towards the extreme right for traditional conservative politicians to appear "leftist" to you.
- Kim_Bruning 9mo agoBy "conservative/nationalist", do you mean <MAGA-Aligned> , like PVV or AFD?
- WA 9mo agoNationalism is on the rise in most EU countries and they get away with saying all kinds of things you apparently dream about, but feel censored to say. The tale of lacking free speech is a lie. Free speech in the EU is different from the US. Insulting people is not considered free speech in the EU. Calling "fire" in a packed cinema wrongly is not covered by free speech in the EU. You can say a lot of things, but you might feel social pressure, which is a feature, not a bug.
- avianlyric 9mo ago> See thats why one needs a sovereign financial and banking system. You mean a sovereign financial and banking system like the one currently freezing some $200B of Russian assets? Yeah I think the EU already has one of those.
- blibble 9mo agoSWIFT is belgian...
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoAren't all SWIFT transactions over a certain amount routed to the US for approval?
- avianlyric 9mo agoThat is not how SWIFT works at all. SWIFT is basically a peer to peer financial network between banks. Any bank can send any amount of money to any other bank, without any kind of approval from the US, provided they have an appropriate common facility. Which could be anything from both banks having accounts at a different common bank, or both banks holding accounts at a common national bank, which allows them to transact directly.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoPretty sure I saw an article describing some approval process. While trying to find it I found references to FATCA, TFTP, and some reporting by the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html
- disgruntledphd2 9mo agoThe US can and does sanction entities that facilitate transactions it doesn't like, by cutting them off from the dollar system. That may be the source of your confusion.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- saubeidl 9mo agoThe digital Euro and dedollarization can't come quickly enough.
- derelicta 9mo agoOur Overlords in America will never allow it
- intended 9mo agoThe US is essentially demolishing itself. At the level it existed before the 2nd Trump admin, it had supply chains of intelligence, capability, and the ability to project actual force and support. It has deleted institutional knowledge. The degree of self own here, is historic.
- derelicta 9mo agoI think this trajectory precedes Trump. No Empire lasts forever.
- vixen99 9mo ago- for you.
- 36890752189743 9mo ago[flagged]
- jeroenhd 9mo agoEurope is struggling with an energy crisis because of its sanctions against Russia. I'm sure those Iranian and Venezuelan oil fields willook awfully enticing after the Americans break down more and more American-European trade ties. Who knows, maybe a sizable oil investment might convince the Iranians to stop contributing to the Ukrainian invasion.
- azalemeth 9mo agoThis just isn't really true any more. The Scandinavian countries have become net green energy exporters including over winter (lots of wind power and biogas in municipal heating networks) and the block as a whole is banning Russian gas imports from next year. (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20251211IPR32169/eu-to-phase-out-imports-of-russian-gas https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20251211IP...) The price per kWh has dropped sharply in recent years compared to the invasion peak, though they are about double what they were before COVID (not inflation adjusted) - see https://skilky-skilky.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Household-Energy-Price-Index-for-Europe-May-2025.pdf https://skilky-skilky.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Househ.... It's the UK that's up the shitter but that's far from uncommon....
- jadbox 9mo agoFrom the thread, "If you want an explainer on why the EU’s DSA Fine Against X is Not About Speech or Censorship read this article:" https://www.techpolicy.press/the-eus-fine-against-x-is-not-about-speech-or-censorship/ https://www.techpolicy.press/the-eus-fine-against-x-is-not-a...
- dotandgtfo 9mo agoReally abhorrent how the current US government is spinning this into their tried and true "free speech" crusade despite it being mostly irrelevant. The DSA's core goal is transparency, shown clearly in the X ruling. > The ‘blue checks’ charge is about consumer deception. X changed the rules about how it does verification in a way that allowed impersonation and scams to flourish. [...] As the Commission put it, the DSA “clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified, when no such verification took place.” > The ‘ads transparency’ charge stems from the DSA’s requirement that platforms must maintain a public archive showing what ads the platform ran, who paid for them, and other information. X fell drastically short of meeting this requirement > The third thing the EU penalized X for is not giving researchers better access to public data. This enforcement is not about the DSA’s more famous and controversial requirement for platforms to hand over internal data. It’s just about information that was already publicly available on X’s site and app. It's clear why the tech monopolies want to keep their secrets in the dark. There is a democratic consensus that what they're pulling either is illegal - or should be illegal. E.g. Scam advertisements, overt editorial practices by selective (de)amplification and/or monetization and looking the other way about bots and third-parties leveraging their systems for spreading political propaganda. Transparency is their enemy. Free speech is their irrelevant but emotion-laden argument. Europeans see straight through it - the questions is, do the Americans?
- johnthewise 9mo agohttps://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1823033048109367549 https://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1823033048109367549 Are we supposed to think these prior public threats are unrelated and X is really fined for changing a design on their website?
- 9mo ago
- stuffoverflow 9mo agoSanctions in this context mean visa restrictions (travel ban to US). So not financial sanctions. Just thought it would be a good thing to clarify.
- CrossVR 9mo agoI find it deeply cynical that representatives of a federalized union call upon another union to disband in favor of national identity. It is a transparent ploy to sow division within another competing union for geopolitical gain.
- throw-the-towel 9mo agoThe world hegemon caught doing cynical thing, news at 11.
- throwaway894345 9mo agoIs the idea here to normalize what the Trump administration is doing as “what any hegemon would do”? As far as I’m aware, the US largely avoided using its power to directly prosecute one man’s personal vendettas?
- throw-the-towel 9mo agoThe idea here is that all hegemonic power will eventually be abused, unless there's a system of checks on it. The same thing prevents "benevolent dictatorships" from existing.
- throwaway894345 9mo agoThe US has a system of checks, but 2.5 of the three of them are seriously compromised. A system of checks alone isn’t enough to prevent any abuse of power, and abuse of power isn’t limited to global hegemons. What really makes abuse of power dangerous is normalizing it. The more people expect power to be abused, the more likely it becomes that power will be abused.
- saubeidl 9mo agoThe world hegemon is currently throwing away its hegemonial power in a series of unforced errors, that's the real news here.
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- zkmon 9mo ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 9mo agoBecause it went so well last time Europe was ruled by strongmen.
- zkmon 9mo ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 9mo agoCaveman mentality.
- zkmon 9mo agoSo, you want to be weaker by your own intention and demand that someone should take care of you? Caveman mentality is far more advanced than your mentality.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- exasperaited 9mo agoThe day will come when we ban Steve Bannon, Elon Musk and JD Vance from the UK, and I think for the first two at least, the day is getting closer. (I personally expect Vance to be banned from the UK - along with Denmark and Greenland - as soon as he is no longer VP. But then I suspect his days of international travel will end then more generally.) But since diplomacy requires proportionality, maybe we start with Bannon, or Nick Fuentes, or Andrew Auernheimer. (They really should be banned from travel here like Matthew Heimbach, Richard Spencer, Don Black and Mark Weber already are.)
- vixen99 9mo agoYour suggestion should it materialize would certainly be in line with the general atmosphere which has been developing in the UK.
- TheOtherHobbes 9mo agoOverreach in some areas does not conflict with proportional and appropriate action in others.
- exasperaited 9mo agoA general atmosphere that we sometimes ban white nationalists and neo-nazis when they actively provoke violence or hatred or illegally interfere in our politics to destabilise the country? Oh no, I'm sorry if this is upsetting or surprising to anyone! Seriously: Vance will be persona non grata when this is over. The list of countries that should ban him is longer than the one I made (Germany should, for example). The list of countries he won't risk visiting is probably longer still. But then I think he won't risk leaving the USA at all after this is all over. And nor should he. And as others have observed, Musk has actively attempted to foment violence in the UK; people get banned from other countries (including the USA) for that all the time.
- Amezarak 9mo agoYour country is being 'destabilized' by your own government refusing to address popular concerns. No amount of bad speech can make people extremist on its own. Instead of addressing the underlying issues causing societal destabilization, just as countless failed governments have before, your government is focused on doubling down and making people shut up about it. Yes, a lot of these people are bigots or cranks. But people living in well-run countries don't listen to bigots and cranks. They aren't a problem. People start listening to bigots and cranks when nobody else will listen to them. Instead of curing the disease you're treating the symptoms. Silencing people to maintain public order and harmony is the siren song of every failing authoritarian government there's ever been.
- seydor 9mo agoIt's funny how the US administration thinks people like Breton acted ideologically. Brusselocrats are career politicians caring more about their CV than the spirit of their actions. They do populist flashy things, it's not like they'd lose an election or anything. Ban them all you want, you re just buttering their bread , it's another bullet in their CV, a badge of honor. Then again, Trump has to win the election, and the Bell curve is symmetrical. Sanctioning EU politicians is less like sanctioning elected national politicians, and more like sanctioning artists. No nation was offended
- fidotron 9mo ago> It's funny how the US administration thinks people like Breton acted ideologically. It's odd anyone paying attention to what Breton says could possibly think otherwise.
- peterfirefly 9mo agoBreton is 70 so he will probably do a soft retirement now. He has had a fantastic career in business, academia, and (French) politics. Less than 5 years of that career was spent in Bruxelles.
- 36890752189743 9mo ago[flagged]
- sebow 9mo agoIn the last electoral cycle I've seen firsthand censorship applied to remote acquaintances because of the newly added EU DSA (this in and of itself would not be a huge disaster [by EU standards] if it wasn't accompanied by arrests), which was used as justification over some posts on TikTok and X; therefore I don't really care who hurts the pro-censorship faction within the EU. People have been arrested in WE for speech online for more than a decade now, but now it also happens in EE, where I live, bringing back communist-era "vibes". You would excuse me if the anti-Trump or anti-US (because of the current administration) rhetoric doesn't move me regarding this. Or let me guess, "Trump bad and therefore we should accept DSA/Chat control 2.0/3.0/etc."? Sorry, I don't care. And people who think this is only about the recent X fine are also wrong (this started last year when Thierry Breton started influencing european elections while also boasting about how he can annul such elections without repercussions; you can deduce what I'm talking about by asking an LLM). This is in part US gov. protecting private companies (and thus itself) from fines, sure, but the broader point about censorship within the west applies. Everything that hurts the people making legislation regarding the Internet (or software in general) within the EU should be welcomed with open arms. EU apologists would rather change the subject and talk about Trump and the polarizing social environment in the US rather than acknowledge that within the EU, there's not even a chance for discourse to be had about any policy(especially the nonexistent free speech) due to the aforementioned laws. The same people will act surprised when extreme positions regarding the EU are adopted by an ever-increasing number of people "until morale improves".
- TheOtherHobbes 9mo agoThe EU does far too little to prevent election influencing. From Cambridge Analytica, proof of foreign bribery, algorithmic promotion of bot content by X and Meta specifically intended to undermine democracies, there's plenty of election fixing happening, and the EU should be much more aggressive about preventing it. Individual free speech is not - of course - ethically or politically identical to "free speech" produced by weaponised industrial content farms funded by corporations and foreign actors.
- sebow 9mo ago
- chvid 9mo agoAs far as I can tell these people are not on the SDN list (which would defacto deny them a bank account anywhere in the west plus kill their azure ad login) but merely on a travel ban.
- touwer 9mo agoFunny how time and time again, users of this forum mix obvious fiction and facts about Europe and the EU. I guess it's too difficult to read up on these things before posting an opinion reflecting rightwing US politicians
- Kim_Bruning 9mo agoPresumably the US wants the EU to permit more Far-right 'conservativism'? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S-WJN3L5eo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S-WJN3L5eo 1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan) This is apparently representative of what that means at this moment in time. I think it's pretty extreme too, but on searching, none of the participants' positions seem to have been disowned by their own side. One of them actually fundraised $30000 afterwards.
- TrackerFF 9mo agoFor a country that actively bans school books on "gender ideology", fires federal workers that show any support for all things "WOKE", it is absolutely hilarious that they're also seeing themselves as the last bastion of free speech. They are not serious people. Plain and simple. The day these clowns are kicked out can't come soon enough.
- ndsipa_pomu 9mo agoUnfortunately, they're very serious about their racism and dividing up the country between themselves and their billionaire pals.
- apexalpha 9mo agoLike a petulant rich kid running to his parents after being told No for the first time in their lives. If anyone still doubts whether the Americans are serious about going solo in geopolitics this should be nail #192873 in your Trans-Atlantic coffin.
- evanjrowley 9mo agoThank you EU government officials for standing up to US big tech interests.
- ChrisArchitect 9mo ago[dupe] Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46370787
- silexia 9mo ago[flagged]
- penguin_booze 9mo agoThe headline I want to see is 'nations across the world declares the US a pariah state'.
- krapp 9mo agoWe have three more years of Trump and probably at least four of JD Vance (because American leftists are utterly fucking useless) so just wait. The century of American humiliation is just beginning.