The need for control is a reaction to fear.
Finland has announced that they will sever their international internet link that is connected to Russia. Essentially they appear to want to build a virtual wall between Russia and the ‘West.’ One has to ask why?
Four decades ago, the voice of freedom was heard saying, “tear down this wall.” President Reagan led a movement that resulted in the tearing down of the wall between the West and the Soviet Union. Today, the modern version of European “democracy” is taking action akin to saying, “we must rebuild these walls.”
This is a very dangerous approach because this is a desire to stop discussion. This is a demand to stop the free flow of challenging ideas. This approach, silence as opposed to winning the argument, is the exact opposite of freedom. It is the activity of dictatorships. This is where the West finds itself today, limiting the flow of ideas to the public. The people in the EU might be better off living in Russia now.
Frederick Douglas said in 1860 in Boston:
“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first strike down. They know its power.
What is it that the Europeans fear? In 2025 both JD Vance and Marco Rubio warned against this very idea of censoring what people could see and hear.
I doubt that Vladimir Putin is against the idea of having Europe sever the Internet. Every dictatorial step the West takes from covid passports to vaccine mandates, to quarantine camps and beyond, only makes the Russian Federation look more open and freer by comparison.
This effort by Finland, and by extension the entire EU, is to control digital information within their domain. We have seen multiple attempts at this starting with the Digital Services Act in the EU. They must control the flow of information to prevent the uprising of the people. They do not want people asking questions that good, compliant citizens are not supposed to ask.