DISINFO: Merz calls for social media restrictions to gag people ahead of hard times in Europe
SUMMARY
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposed tightening controls on digital platforms to combat "fake informations." Merz’s Prussian streak surfaced, making it clear that he has no interest in freedom of expression. There is an offensive against freedom of expression—not just in Germany, but across Europe—because significant problems are already emerging. It is evident that hard times lie ahead for Europe in every respect, which is why they want to silence people. They want to prevent the spread of certain messages that might prompt people to reflect on what is happening.
RESPONSE
This is a disingenuous distortion of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s comments on 15 May 2026 about social media’s lack of regulation or responsibility, where he called for more accountability, in order to advance a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Europe lacking freedom of speech.
Merz’s exact words were: “If the weekly newspaper Die Zeit were to publish a false claim, one could immediately demand a correction from the paper. The social media platforms, however, claim they bear no responsibility for such matters […] Individuals making false claims on social media are often impossible to identify by their real name. This means that, in the wake of digitalization and the broader development of AI, we are facing entirely new challenges”. This is radically different from wanting to curb freedom of expression, as this disinformation story falsely claims.
By attributing spurious reasons to Merz and his supposed push for censorship, this disinformation story provides a convenient but ultimately false explanation for what is actually an attempt to confront the lack of proper regulation on social media allowing foreign information manipulation and interference, which Russia exploits regularly. It is no coincidence that this baseless claim appeared just days after Merz’s CDU/CSU party and the Social Democrats signed a 144-page coalition deal outlining steps to address disinformation and targeted influence on elections.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that there is definitely no freedom of speech in the West, that media censorship is openly introduced in the West, that the West cannot cope with freedom of opinion and imposes censorship, or that the Collective West purges the information space from any unwanted sources.