Month: February 2026

An Iranian asylum seeker, who came to the UK illegally on the back of a lorry in July 2024, has been sentenced to 7.5 years for sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Ahmadreza Khalafi, 29, previously pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the teenage girl at St Albans Crown Court in December last year.

His Honour Justice Mann handed Khalafi a four-and-a-half-year custodial sentence, and a further three years on licence.

Khalafi was granted refugee status in the summer of 2024, claiming he would face persecution if he returned to Iran after converting to Christianity.

His victim, 19-year-old Abbie Johnson, who has waived her right to anonymity, told GB News she wants to ‘save someone else from going through what I went through’.

Abbie was attacked by Khalafi while she played hide and seek with her friends after a night out in Bishop Stortford in May last year.

The teenager was hiding in a bush when the 29-year-old Iranian asylum seeker “forcefully and aggressively” assaulted her.

The court was shown CCTV of the assault, which took place over 10-12 minutes.

Sentencing, His Honour Judge Mann said: “You acted on that day as a predator. You saw someone who was vulnerable and took advantage of her.

Khalafi previously admitted to four counts of sexual assault by touching at St Albans Crown Court in December last year.

Defending him, Joe Davidson, said Khalafi “remains very much a foreigner, and is not someone who’s accustomed to alcohol and western norms”.

Mr Davidson said: “Has very little formal education, very little cultural understanding of what is acceptable way to behave in England.”

Judge Mann ruled Khalafi could pose a further risk to women, and told the defendant, “I’m not entirely persuaded you don’t know the difference between right and wrong, it doesn’t matter your background, anyone would know not to go up to a helpless woman and sexually assault them. That’s not right anywhere”.

At St Albans Crown Court, Abbie bravely read her victim impact statement.

She told the court that she now feels scared in her own home, struggles to sleep and has “experienced ongoing depression and at times feels suicidal”.

She said: “I no longer recognise myself, I am disconnected to the person I was before this.”

Abbie previously told GB News the assault left her paralysed with fear, and has had a profound impact on her life.

She told Patrick Christys in December last year “it has affected every single part of my life”.

“Before this all happened, I felt like I was a normal teenage girl.

“And now I feel like I’m living with precaution, every time I leave the house, I’m wondering who’s around the corner.”

Abbie and her mother, Stacey, now want Khalafi deported.

Stacey told GB News’ Patrick Christys: “Parents need to be aware that our kids are not safe. If people do come to this country and they commit a crime, to me, that should be instant deportation.

“We’re not safe in our country now, and I feel like the people that are coming to our country have got more rights and more protection than what we have.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “This government will not allow foreign criminals and illegal migrants to exploit our laws, which is why we are reforming human rights laws and replacing the broken appeals system, allowing us to scale up deportations.

“All Foreign National Offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.”

Detective Sergeant Adam Haines from Hertfordshire Police said: “First and foremost, I would like to commend the victim for the courage she has shown throughout.

“Whilst I am grateful that she was spared the ordeal of having to go through a trial, preparing for it understandably left the victim feeling extremely stressed and scared.

“She continues to be deeply affected by Khalafi’s actions to this day.

“I’d also like to thank the investigation team for their hard work in bringing the case to court and securing a conviction. A sexual predator is now behind bars as a result.”

gbnews

Pressure is mounting on France’s former Socialist Party culture minister Jack Lang to resign as President of the Arab World Institute (IMA) after his name appeared in the files relating to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Since the disclosure of past contacts and meetings between Lang and Epstein, the former minister has defended himself, citing good faith and “naivety”.

That has been dismissed by several political figures, prompting calls from across the political spectrum for him to step down as chief of the IMA, a showcase for the Arab World in Paris.

His predecessor as head of the IMA and now President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, also called on him to step down.

“I consider Jack Lang’s position to be particularly damaging to the institution. I therefore invite him to leave, rather than be forced to resign,” he said yesterday.

According to documents released by the US Department of Justice on January 30, Lang was among the figures who corresponded with Epstein. The files include email exchanges concerning invitations to meet, including at the IMA.

Lang, who served as a minister for two terms from 1981–1986 and 1988–1993, has said he met Epstein in 2013 through a mutual friend, filmmaker Woody Allen and described Epstein as an “acquaintance”.

Lang has said he was unaware of Epstein’s prior conviction in 2008 at the time they met and said he was “stunned” when he later learned of what he described as “abominable crimes”.

He added that he did not regret having known Epstein. “I am not in the habit of badmouthing people I once knew who are later accused of crimes,” he said on French television yesterday.

French investigative outlet Mediapart reported the Lang family’s links to Epstein may have been more extensive than previously known.

According to documents reviewed by the publication, Lang’s daughter set up an offshore company registered in the Virgin Islands with Epstein.

The political fallout from the Epstein files is only beginning in France.

Several French public figures are named in the documents, including former economy minister Bruno Le Maire, mathematician-turned-MP Cédric Villani and others.

The leftt-wing party La France Insoumise has called for the creation of a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into the Epstein affair. That would be aimed at shedding light on any links that may fall “within the political sphere, foreign interference, or political party financing.”

The party says such an inquiry would also help prevent the spread of conspiracy theories.

brusselssignal

Between Laval and Château-Gontier-sur-Mayenne, the church in the French village of Quelaines-Saint-Gault is likely facing its final hours. Deemed too dilapidated, the 11th-century building was scheduled to be demolished in the coming days. The demolition has just been temporarily suspended following an appeal by the association Urgences Patrimoine.

The fight continues…

Today, the 11th-century church in the commune of Quelaines-Saint-Gault (Mayenne) is threatened with demolition by the local council, which wants to turn it into a memorial garden.

€120,000 is being invested in the demolition, but this amount could save it.

This madness must stop.

Sign the petition to save the church here:

NON À LA DESTRUCTION DES ÉGLISES DE FRANCE

Andrew has left his Windsor mansion and gone into ‘exile’ in a Sandringham farm.

The 3 million new ‘Epstein files’ documents released by the US DOJ are revealing damaging information about many powerful people around the world.

But one of the the most featured names is still former British Prince Andrew.

From sexual indiscretions to sharing confidential documents and floating shady deals, every day is another hard blow to his destroyed reputation.

So much so, that the man now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has brought forward his move out of the Royal Lodge mansion he has lived for decades.

The Telegraph reported:

“The former Duke of York has relocated to Wood Farm, part of the King’s Sandringham estate, while he waits for renovations to his new home, Marsh Farm, to be completed.

He had been expected to move before Easter, with his departure apparently hastened amid the release of new files relating to Epstein in recent days.”

Disgraced Andrew evicted from Royal Lodge in midnight exile pic.twitter.com/hQhVQjtNh0

— The Sun (@TheSun) February 4, 2026

“The Sun quoted a source as saying: ‘Leaving was so humiliating for him that he chose to do it under the cover of darkness. He had planned to cling on at Royal Lodge a little longer but, with the latest batch of Epstein files, it was made clear to him that it was time to go’.

‘He didn’t want to have a big emotional goodbye, even though Royal Lodge is a place where he had so many family memories. Theoretically, he could have stayed until Marsh Farm was ready – but the headlines were only getting worse. Also, the fact he’s been seen driving around Windsor laughing and looking like he hasn’t a care in the world hasn’t gone down well with the royal household’.”

And that’s not all: UK Police are ‘assessing’ allegations that a second woman (besides Virginia Giuffre) was sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Andrew.

Daily Mail reported:

“The woman, who was in her 20s and is not British, claims she spent a night with the former Prince at his Royal Lodge home in 2010 on Epstein’s request.

[…] The allegation, which was made last week, marks the first time an Epstein survivor claims they were sexually abused at a royal residence.”

The late Virginia Giuffre alleged she had sex with Andrew in the UK when she was 17 years old. Andrew settled her lawsuit for a reported £12 million.

BREAKING: Protesters have put 'Crime Scene' tape on the railings of Buckingham Palace as part of a protest.

Republic is demanding full disclosure of Epstein connections and Andrew's alleged visits from trafficked girls pic.twitter.com/oDD3oG6flC

— The National (@ScotNational) February 4, 2026

thegatewaypundit

NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo argues that Keir Starmer’s position as Prime Minister is untenable following revelations he knew that Peter Mandelson continued seeing Epstein yet still made him US Ambassador. This is the latest in a pattern of incompetence.

Starmer KNEW Mandelson CONTINUED Epstein Relationship Yet Still Made him US Ambassador. He Must Go!
“Enough is Enough!” Starmer Lacks ALL Judgment and MUST Resign Over Mandelson & Epstein Scandal
Starmer Admits He KNEW Mandelson CONTINUED Seeing Epstein. PM Has NO Political Judgment & Must Go.

The UK Home Office’s Pathways training package was intended to counter the threat of radicalisation in the United Kingdom. Needless to say, this wouldn’t be the most ferocious form of radicalisation, which is Islamism, and by a huge margin. No, they decided to spend a great deal of time and taxpayers’ money on a programme highlighting that spectral terror which lurks only in the minds of civil servants and Church of England clergy—the dreaded ‘far right.’ 

Marketed as an interactive educational tool for schools, Pathways adopts the language and aesthetics of a video game to guide young people away from ‘dangerous pathways.’ In practice, of course, it’s only the one pathway they’re worried about. It reveals a great deal about how the modern British state now defines extremism and why that definition is detached from reality. Pathways has become a case study in institutional overreach, ideological confusion, and the persistent failure of Britain’s counter-extremism establishment to understand either public opinion or the threat landscape we ask them to manage on our behalf. 

At the centre of Pathways is a character called Amelia; a purple-haired goth girl wearing a choker and a pink dress. Unless you have completely detached yourself from the internet over recent weeks, you will have almost certainly come across her, and you will have probably seen her indulging in such extremist practices as waving a Union Jack and generally loving her country. 

Amelia is a teenage activist who questions mass immigration, protests against demographic transformation and expresses alarm at the direction of modern Britain. Within the game’s internal logic, engaging with Amelia’s views increases a ‘risk’ score, pushing the player closer to state intervention and the government’s Prevent process. The message is not subtle. Concerns regarding mass immigration and unwanted cultural change are treated not as political positions to be debated, but as symptoms to be managed. The line between radicalisation and dissent is not merely blurred—it is erased.

This framing exposes the true function of Pathways. It is less an anti-terrorism tool than a mechanism of ideological conditioning, one that treats mainstream concerns about borders, identity, and social cohesion as inherently suspect. In doing so, it confirms what many critics of Prevent have long argued: that counter-extremism policy has quietly expanded into the regulation of thought.

Unbelievably, the Home Office appears to have been caught entirely off guard by the reaction to Amelia. Rather than being rejected, she has been embraced, memed, remixed, and elevated into a symbol across online right-wing communities in Britain and across Europe. Far from functioning as a warning sign, she has become an anti-hero: a shorthand for the ordinary citizen whose views place her on the wrong side of official ideology.

This outcome was entirely predictable. When the state caricatures legitimate political positions, it does not delegitimise them; it validates them. Amelia’s popularity is not evidence of mass radicalisation. It is evidence of widespread exasperation with a political class that insists on vilifying dissent rather than engaging with it. Once released into the digital ecosystem, Amelia escaped Whitehall’s control. She now circulates across European right-wing spaces as a familiar figure—not because of British politics alone, but because her story resonates across the continent. Every country, it seems, now produces its own Amelias—citizens who notice social change, articulate concerns, and are told that doing so places them on a dangerous path.

The most serious flaw in Pathways is not its tone, but its priorities. Britain’s security services have been clear for years: Islamist extremism remains the most serious and ideological threat to the country. The overwhelming majority of attacks, disrupted plots, and terrorism-related deaths in the United Kingdom are linked to Islamist ideology. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of record. And it is the same across Europe.

Yet, Pathways reflects a broader institutional drift away from this reality. Increasingly, counter-extremism resources are directed towards policing right-wing opinion, often defined so broadly that it includes views held by a sizeable portion of the electorate, while the most dangerous forms of extremism are treated with comparative caution—if, indeed, they are treated at all. The result is a grotesque imbalance. The state devotes ever more energy to monitoring attitudes while kowtowing to ideologies which have demonstrated a repeated willingness to translate belief into violence. This imbalance does not enhance public safety; it most assuredly undermines it.

Pathways also reopens uncomfortable questions about the Prevent Strategy itself. Originally introduced as a safeguarding mechanism aimed at preventing radicalisation turning into violence, Prevent has steadily expanded into a bloated, ill-organised surveillance framework. Teachers, youth workers, and public servants are encouraged to interpret political views as early warning signs, with teenage boys even being reported for crowding around a screen and looking at Andrew Tate-related content. This muddles any distinction between safeguarding and ideological enforcement. 

This expansion has consequences. It erodes trust in public institutions, discourages open discussion and teaches young people that certain viewpoints (however widely held) are best kept hidden. Far from building resilience, it fosters yet further cynicism and resentment. Amelia’s transformation into a cultural icon should be understood in this context. She is not celebrated because she is thought of as extreme, but because she represents resistance: resistance to being infantilised by a state that no longer distinguishes between disagreement and danger and which holds most of us in utter contempt.

Ultimately, Pathways has backfired because it embodies a worldview that cannot or will not differentiate between terrorism and democratic dissent. By collapsing these distinctions, the UK Home Office has handed its critics a powerful symbol of its own making. The irony is spectacular. In attempting to warn young people away from so-called dangerous narratives, the British government has demonstrated precisely why those narratives flourish; because institutions refuse to engage honestly with public concern, preferring instead to moralise, stigmatise, surveil and, often, arrest. Counter-extremism policy cannot succeed if a nation’s government treats its ordinary citizens as latent threats, or if it prioritises ideological conformity over physical security. Britain does not need gamified moral lessons. It needs honesty about where real danger lies and the confidence to defend free political disagreement. 

Until things change, Amelia will continue to grow and circulate across our continent. 

europeanconservative

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has admitted that he was aware that his mentor and former Ambassador to the United States, Lord Mandelson, had a relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but claimed that he was misled over the extent of the ties.

Taking to the dispatch box on Wednesday afternoon as he fights for his political life, Prime Minister Starmer attempted to shift blame for the disastrous decision to appoint veteran former Tony Blair spin doctor Lord Peter ‘Prince of Darkness’ Mandelson as his ambassador to Washington.

Starmer admitted that he was aware that Mandelson had continued his relationship with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein after serving prison time for child sex offences. This followed opposition Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who noted during PMQs that a Financial Times journalist had informed Starmer in 2024 that Mandelson had stayed at Epstein’s house after the conviction.

While the PM acknowledged he knew about the links, he claimed he was unaware of the “sheer depth and extent of the relationship” between the two men, The Times reported.

“He lied about that to everyone for years. New information was published in September showing the relationship was materially different to what we’d been led to believe. When the new information came to light, I sacked him,” Starmer said.

“If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been appointed [as ambassador to Washington],” the prime minister added.

Renewed scrutiny has been placed on the decision to appoint Mandelson in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice releasing millions of documents related to the Epstein case, including emails between the paedophile money man and the British political operative.

Epstein-Linked Mandelson Resigns From Parliament as Police Announce Reviewhttps://t.co/tBEmV3NOij

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 3, 2026

According to the files, Mandelson allegedly used his former position as business secretary under the Gordon Brown Labour government in 2009 to provide Epstein with confidential, potentially market-moving insider information, including advance notice of an impending €500 billion bailout.

The tranche of documents also appeared to show Mandelson receiving $75,000 (£55,000) in direct payments from Epstein, who also seemingly paid Mandelson’s husband £10,000 in 2009.

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday evening that it has opened a criminal investigation into Lord Mandelson over potential misconduct while in office. This came shortly after Mandelson resigned from his House of Lords seat.

While the longtime Labour Party spin doctor, who served prominently in all Labour governments this century, has resigned from the party, it is unlikely to do much to quell the budding scandal.

During the heated exchange in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch questioned whether the prime minister still has confidence in his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who is said to have been a driving force behind the decision to appoint Mandelson as U.S. ambassador.

“We know there will be a cover-up because this implicates the prime minister and Morgan McSweeney,” Badenoch said.

Although the PM said that McSweeney remains an “essential part” of his team, time will tell if the Downing Street power broker may be thrown to the wolves in order to save Starmer’s skin. The scale of discontent over the matter even among Starmer’s own Labour Party is becoming clear as his attempt to limit what Mandelson documents would be released for parliamentary scrutiny were subject to a u-turn on Wednesday afternoon in the face of a backbench rebellion.

Indeed, even before the Epstein scandal, Starmer was said to be on the ropes, with his approval ratings plummeting since taking power last year and multiple rumoured leadership challenges splashed across the London press. Previously, the upcoming May elections were seen as being make-or-break for his premiership; however, it remains to be seen if the embattled Labour leader will manage to cling to power until then.

breitbart

Spain’s Civil Guard officers’ association has warned that the border fence surrounding the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta is in a state of serious deterioration, with several sections in disrepair, allowing migrants to cross the barrier in less than 30 seconds.

In a statement cited by Europa Sur, the Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC) said recent storms in the Strait of Gibraltar, including Storm Kristin, caused parts of the double fence separating Ceuta from Morocco to collapse or loosen, leaving what it described as a border in a state of “collapse.”

Repair of the infrastructure has not been made a priority, and the damage has coincided with the mass amnesty offered by Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to illegal immigrants, which experts warned has created a mass pull factor that is placing even more pressure on authorities protecting Spanish territory.

Mientras la gran mayoría de los medios mira hacia otro lado, la situación en los alrededores de #Ceuta sigue escalando a pasos agigantados. Cientos de inmigrantes ilegales se agolpan en #Belyounech y zonas adyacentes, organizando asaltos diarios a las vallas fronterizas. Medios… https://t.co/p3OfXGeh2u pic.twitter.com/dp46IaAe3p

— Rubén Pulido (@rubnpulido) February 3, 2026

The association renewed calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the entire border perimeter, arguing that authorities have relied too heavily on temporary repairs and improvised fixes instead of implementing a long-term solution.

From an operational perspective, the AUGC warned that the current configuration of the double fence is “clearly vulnerable,” noting that migrants can scale both fences in under 30 seconds, leaving security forces little time to react effectively.

Security features installed to slow crossings are also proving ineffective, according to officers. Anti-climb netting can be bypassed with improvised tools, while hooks and other devices are reportedly used at the top of the 10-meter-high barrier to speed up ascents.

Officers further warned that the metal support beams on the inner side of the structure now function as “real ladders,” making descent easier once migrants cross.

Another concern raised is the condition of the fence’s detection systems. According to the AUGC, the accumulation of temporary repairs and structural patches prevents the fencing from vibrating properly, reducing the effectiveness of sensors designed to detect climbing attempts and sometimes causing delayed or failed alerts.

Attention has also turned to Ceuta’s maritime border. The association is calling for urgent expansion and renovation of the Benzú and El Tarajal breakwaters to prevent migrants from attempting to swim around land barriers. Officers described the Benzú breakwater in particular as “falling apart,” warning that its condition poses risks both to migrants and to security personnel.

The warning follows an incident on February 1, when dozens of illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including nationals from Guinea and Sudan, entered Ceuta irregularly after scaling the damaged fencing. Authorities said the group took advantage of bad weather and structural weaknesses to evade detection systems.

Spanish migration analyst Rubén Pulido warned on the La Noche de Cuesta radio program that further attempts to breach the fence could be imminent.

🔴 #ÚLTIMAHORA || Decenas de inmigrantes han ocasionado daños en las vallas fronterizas de #Ceuta. Se prevé un asalto masivo en las próximas 48-72 horas. En estos momentos la situación en nuestras fronteras es de máxima tensión. Los agentes están sin medios y se teme lo peor en… pic.twitter.com/CvLcy2qZIp

— Rubén Pulido (@rubnpulido) February 3, 2026

“Dozens of migrants have damaged the border fences in Ceuta. A mass assault is expected within the next 48-72 hours. The situation at our borders is currently extremely tense. Officers are under-resourced, and the worst is feared in the area,” he said.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government recently agreed with far-left allies to implement a large-scale regularization of migrants already in the country through a royal decree.

Under the measure, migrants able to prove their presence in Spain before Dec. 31, 2025, and at least five months’ continuous stay may qualify for provisional residence and work permits if they have no serious criminal record. Deportation proceedings are suspended once an application is filed, and successful applicants receive a one-year renewable residence permit. Podemos estimates that more than half a million people could benefit.

Critics argue the move risks encouraging further irregular migration by signaling leniency toward illegal entry.

Vox party leader Santiago Abascal sharply criticized the policy, saying, “The tyrant Sánchez hates the Spanish people. He wants to replace them. That’s why he intends to create a pull factor by decree, to accelerate the invasion. It must be stopped. Repatriations, deportations, and immigration.”

rmx

by Olivia Murray 

In the city of Arnsberg, Germany, on some steps at a local bus station, students of a nearby school had painted a “Pride” flag down the risers of the stairs, as part of a “diversity and tolerance project.” But then, as reported by Thomas Brooke at Remix News, someone changed it up—a dreaded and evil nationalist no doubt—effectively painting a German flag over the students’ “art” installation (photo above):

🇩🇪🌈 Someone painted over a rainbow staircase with the German national flag in the town of Arnsberg, and the local Green Party cried about it…

"This is an extreme right-wing statement. This means you are against diversity, peace, and freedom." pic.twitter.com/0IbfVOKd8C

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 3, 2026

When the leftists saw what had been done, outrage erupted:

Local Green Party council leader Verena Verspohl condemned the action, calling it a political statement directed against minorities. In a social media video, she said: ‘Spraying a rainbow staircase in black, red, and gold is not a political statement. That is an extreme right-wing statement. It can’t be misinterpreted. This means that it is against diversity, against queer people, against peace, freedom, and a colorful society, and in favor of nationalism.’

Painting your country’s flag in a public space is somehow not a completely reasonable political statement, but an “extreme” act of “right-wing” aggression against certain portions of the population? In a sane world, we’d call that insanity. And, if the motive of the patriotic painter(s) really were a statement against “queer” individuals, AKA queer leftists? To that I say, good. This morning, an AT reader sent us a story about how ten men in France had been arrested and charged with raping a 5-year-old boy they’d procured from the boy’s father; this child was the “entertainment” for their “chemsex” party, which is, apparently, where a bunch of gays get together, do drugs, and engage in obscene sexual behavior, either with each other, or in this case, a drugged child. So forgive me for not giving a flying rat’s rear about statements against “queer people” who are part of the gay crusade. (Let’s not forget who commits more than half of the sex crimes against children, while comprising just a fraction of the overall adult population.)

Verspohl also added that while she didn’t have a problem with the German banner being flown in private spaces, it “doesn’t work at all” in public spaces:

‘Paint yourselves in national colors at home, hang the flag in your garden, do what you want. But this is the public space. That doesn’t work at all. Incidentally, it’s a pupil’s work, a pupil’s star work, which is being trampled on here.’

Read that again: The German flag is an unwelcome sight in Germany’s public square. And it wasn’t just Green Party officials who had a problem with the banners of black, red, and gold, but other “city officials” as well, who filed a complaint with local law enforcement. In an an ironic twist, the complaints about the flag being a “statement” against peace and freedom are beyond asinine, as the colors literally represent a journey from servitude to liberty and prosperity: the black represents the darkness of oppression, thrown off through a bloody struggle (red), emerging into the golden age of democracy, unity, freedom, and peace. The “Pride” flag is inarguably, only representative of a small bit of the overall population, while the German flag represents every German.

Again, why do these idiots even have a say in the political process? Voting is a privilege (not a right!), and their privileges need to be revoked.

americanthinker

The US House Committee on the Judiciary has ramped up its accusations against the European Commission, accusing it of repeated election interference and censorship.

After reviewing documents and communications of European regulators regarding Brussels’ tech regulation, the Republican-led Committee published a report titled The EU Censorship Files, Part II.

It is accompanied by thousands of pages of internal Big Tech documents and communications with European regulators.

The committee, chaired by Republican Jim Jordan, describes the material as proof of a decade-long European campaign to impose global narrative control through pressure on social-media platforms.

The findings build directly on January’s exposure by the same committee of the EC’s first-ever fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA) – €120 million against X for “defending free speech”.

That decision, which the Republicans had made public, was described as a “secret censorship order”.

The new committee material extends the critique, saying the EC has gone far beyond content moderation to reshape the rules that govern what may or may not be said online worldwide.

European censorship poses a global threat.

Tomorrow, hosted by @JudiciaryGOP, we'll be testifying before the US Congress with the proof. https://t.co/oAq5OcsrR1

— ADF International (@ADFIntl) February 3, 2026

According to the documents, the pressure began as early as 2015 with ostensibly “voluntary” regulations. These included the EU Internet Forum, the Code of Conduct on Hate Speech, the Code of Practice on Disinformation.

In private, platform executives admitted they had “no real choice” but to comply.

The EC repeatedly demanded changes to global community guidelines, the policies that set the boundaries of acceptable speech for users everywhere, including in the US.

The House Representatives points towards pressure during the Covid-19 pandemic to remove or down-rank truthful content questioning vaccine efficacy in children or established narratives on lockdowns and virus origins.

There were also meetings in California in which EC Vice-President Věra Jourová made clear that US as well as European elections were on the agenda.

Former European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton is also mentioned, in particular his highly controversial letter threatening X  in August 2024 with regulatory retaliation for hosting a live interview with now-US President Donald Trump.

Finally, and perhaps most explosive, the Republicans say there were at least eight sets of pre-election meetings with platforms ahead of elections in six European countries since 2023, with demands to suppress “disinformation” in the final days before polling.

Particularly striking, they say, is the  case of Romania.

After the first round of the 2024 presidential elections, a court annulled the result on the basis of alleged but still unproven Russian interference via TikTok favouring candidate Călin Georgescu.

Internal platform records released by the committee show that TikTok informed the EC it had found “no evidence” of any such co-ordinated foreign campaign.

Subsequent public reporting indicated the supposed influence operation was in fact funded by a rival Romanian political party. The election was nevertheless rerun and the establishment candidate prevailed.

The report also documents how platforms altered their worldwide rules to satisfy DSA requirements.

TikTok, for instance, updated its global community guidelines in 2024 explicitly “to comply with the Digital Services Act”. It introduced new restrictions on “marginalising speech” and other categories that the committee argues adversely affect constitutionally protected speech in the US.

The committee said censorship was applied via “codes” and “forums” that were, initially, not legally binding but still felt imposed, as internal mails of tech companies showed “they don’t really have a choice” on whether to comply or not.

In 2015, the EU created the EU Internet Forum (EUIF), via the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs. By 2023, the EUIF had published a handbook for tech companies to moderate “lawful, non-violative speech”, also named “borderline content”.

With support of NGO’s and “trusted researchers”, these are supposed to moderate so-called populist rhetoric, anti-government or anti-EU content, anti-elite content, political satire, anti-migrant and Islamophobic content, anti-refugee or anti-immigration sentiment, anti-LGBTIQ+ content, anti-feminism, pro-Kremlin borderline content and meme culture.

Political satire is also part of this “borderline content” because, according to the EC, it is susceptible to “terrorist and violent extremist content” when it creates a “sense of collective identity and internal group cohesion” and is used to “avoid censorship [sic] based on delivery as a joke”.

Republican Senator Eric Schmitt declared: “Far-left Eurocrats want social media companies to censor Americans’ online speech through regulatory decree. We rejected European control of our speech in 1776.

“We’re not going to allow it in 2026.”

Committee chairman and fellow Republican Jim Jordan summarised the EC’s record as having “pressured social media platforms to censor true information in the United States, targeted US political content, and interfered in elections across Europe”.

The timing of the report’s release coincides with fresh action in France. Yesterday, the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit, supported by Europol, raided X’s French offices and summoned the platform’s owner Elon Musk and former chief executive Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April.

The investigation, opened in January 2025 and recently widened, now encompasses alleged algorithmic bias, foreign interference, dissemination of child sexual abuse material, Holocaust denial and the functioning of X’s Grok AI.

Critics described the communiqué announcing the French moves as resembling the language of a “communist junta”. It was also pointed out that opposite the algorithms, there stood a legacy media that was even less nuanced than the new tech, with all traditional magazines fully embracing and supporting President Emmanuel Macron in his first bid for the post.

The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for later today at which victims of the alleged European censorship campaign are due to testify. The committee says its investigation into foreign threats to US free speech continues.

In this exclusive Brussels Signal interview, three US Congressmen, @Jim_Jordan, @RepFitzgerald, and @RepKiley join us to discuss growing concerns over the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and its global implications for freedom of speech. pic.twitter.com/Yge4hpo8u8

— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 29, 2025

brusselssignal