WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 30) – The U.S. House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing titled “Europe’s Threat to Speech and Innovation: Part II,” examining how European speech laws and censorship regimes are impacting free expression, innovation, and democratic debate. 

Witnesses, including Finnish Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and ADF International legal expert Lorcán Price, will warn lawmakers of Europe’s expanding speech restrictions, including criminal prosecutions for peaceful expression. These restrictions pose serious threats to fundamental freedoms and risk being exported beyond Europe to the United States. 

Räsänen’s case has become one of Europe’s most prominent examples of the criminalization of speech, after she was criminally charged and put on trial for expressing her Christian beliefs online in a 2019 tweet. She is currently awaiting a verdict after facing criminal trial before the Supreme Court of Finland in October. 

Price will offer testimony regarding Europe’s censorship crisis and the European Union’s attack on free speech using the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is one of the most dangerous restrictions on free speech in the digital age. The House Judiciary Committee warned about the DSA’s risks to American free speech in its July report “The Foreign Censorship Threat: How the European Union’s Digital Services Act Compels Global Censorship and Infringes on American Free Speech”. 

When: 
Feb. 4, beginning at 10 a.m. EST 

Where: 
Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., and via livestream 

Media Attendance: 
Members of the media are encouraged to attend the hearing in person or view the livestream. Interviews with speakers may be requested in advance. 

To schedule interviews or for additional information, contact ADF International Communications Officer, Anna Rose Myrick at [email protected] or (480)-371-7941.