We don’t need worldwide policing of speech

For almost seven years, Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen has faced criminal charges for alleged “hate speech.” Her supposed wrongdoing stems from a 2019 tweet where she expressed her Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality and included a photo of a Bible passage. In that tweet, Räsänen questioned the leadership of Finland’s Lutheran church, asking whether it was appropriate for the church to support a Pride parade. Although she has been unanimously acquitted twice, she is set to face trial once again today—this time before Finland’s Supreme Court.

Räsänen, who is a medical doctor, Finland’s former interior minister, and a parliamentarian since 1995, was criminally charged with “agitation against a minority group.” She was charged under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity” for sharing her tweet, as well as for a 2019 live radio debate and 2004 church pamphlet. Bishop Juhana Pohjola was criminally charged alongside her for publishing Räsänen’s pamphlet. The Finnish state prosecution has dropped the charge regarding the radio debate in its appeal to the Supreme Court.

During the high-profile trial before the Court of Appeal in 2023, the prosecution frequently attacked core Christian teachings and cross-examined Räsänen and the bishop on their theology. For example, the state prosecutor claimed, “You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal.”

As the case now reaches its climax at Finland’s Supreme Court, it’s clear that this is not about one woman alone. It’s about the rights inherent to all of us to freely live and speak the truths of our faith.

As the U.S. State Department recently noted in its statement on the case, “In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs. The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found.”

The State Department post included a Bible verse—Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Räsänen and the bishop’s ordeal is a warning to Christians and people of other religions across the world. When governments claim the power to police opinions, even peaceful expressions of the faith can be dragged through the courts. And this threat is becoming increasingly apparent online.

Europe’s Digital Services Act threatens to spread this dangerous model far beyond Finland. The DSA gives the EU authority to enforce “content moderation” on platforms and search engines with over 45 million monthly users. It is one of the most dangerous censorship regimes of the digital age, enabling bureaucrats to control online speech at scale under the guise of “safety” and “protecting democracy.” Räsänen is one of 113 international experts committed to free speech who signed on to a letter to the EU highlighting the law’s incompatibility with free expression.

The DSA hands Brussels sweeping power to control online speech across platforms like X, YouTube, and Facebook. Under the law, anything deemed “illegal” under the speech laws of any one EU member state can be removed across all of Europe. That means the harshest censorship laws in Europe could soon govern the entire continent, and possibly the internet worldwide. And if platforms fail to comply once content has been flagged for removal, they face billions in fines, thus providing clear incentive to censor and none to promote free speech.

U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder warned recently that the DSA threatens to censor American speech online. Puzder stated that President Donald Trump will not “tolerate a foreign government restricting the First Amendment fundamental free speech/free expression rights of American citizens.” Puzder’s warning came just after an admission from Google that Europe’s online censorship laws target American speech.

It’s clear that this isn’t just a European problem. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued a July report detailing how the DSA’s censorial reach touches America and the rest of the world beyond Europe. The EU is coming after the First Amendment, and it must be stopped.

As explained by French Member of the European Parliament Virginie Joron, “The French digital regulator ARCOM told me they believe the DSA allows them to censor any post anywhere in the world using the DSA. That means even an American citizen posting in Alabama could potentially have their online post taken down, even if the publication would be legal in the U.S.”

Brussels bureaucrats must not be allowed to position themselves as the world’s speech police. Christians especially should be on alert: What is happening to Räsänen could one day happen to any believer who dares to share biblical truth online. At stake is not only the future of free expression, but our ability to proclaim the faith. For the freedom of all people, we must resist the rise of a global censorship regime.