Alliance Defending Freedom, the world’s largest legal organization dedicated to protecting religious freedom and free speech, has raised significant concerns about the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and its implications for fundamental freedoms worldwide. As a legal advocacy organization with extensive experience in constitutional law and First Amendment issues, Alliance Defending Freedom has unpacked the complex regulation that came into full effect in February 2024.
Understanding the Digital Services Act Framework
The Digital Services Act represents the EU’s first comprehensive binding regulation of digital service providers in more than two decades. According to Alliance Defending Freedom’s analysis, the DSA applies to very large online platforms and search engines with more than 45 million monthly users that either operate in or offer services to EU citizens.
“Although it purports to create ‘a safe online environment,’ the DSA is among the most dangerous censorship regimes of the digital age,” states Alliance Defending Freedom in their detailed assessment of the legislation. The organization has identified several concerning elements in the regulatory framework that could significantly impact free expression.
The legal experts at Alliance Defending Freedom note that the DSA requires platforms to censor “illegal content,” broadly defined as anything not compliant with EU law or the law of any individual Member State. This approach could potentially create a “lowest common denominator” for censorship across the entire European Union.
Legal Implications Beyond European Borders
Alliance Defending Freedom’s legal analysts have identified concerning international implications of the regulation. While the DSA is technically limited to the European Union, its practical effects extend far beyond Europe’s borders.
The organization points out that the DSA explicitly confirms its extraterritorial applicability, covering platforms used by people “that have their place of establishment or are located in the Union, irrespective of where the providers of those intermediary services [the platforms] have their place of establishment.”
Alliance Defending Freedom’s international legal team has highlighted that platforms may adopt EU censorship standards globally to avoid potential non-compliance penalties, which can reach up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue. This could effectively establish de facto global censorship standards, even affecting speech in countries with strong constitutional protections like the United States.
Content Moderation and Enforcement Mechanisms
The nonprofit legal organization has broken down the DSA’s complex enforcement structure, which includes “trusted flaggers,” national coordinators, and monitoring authorities with the European Commission at its head. This system, according to Alliance Defending Freedom, creates a “censorship industrial complex” that places significant pressure on platforms to remove content.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s constitutional law experts emphasize that under this framework, platforms evaluate content under threat of enormous financial penalties. “They face little to no punishment for unjustly banning content and enormous penalties if they refuse to censor,” the legal organization notes, creating incentives that skew heavily toward removing rather than protecting speech.
The legal advocacy organization has also raised concerns about the DSA’s emergency powers, which allow the European Commission to demand additional censorship measures during undefined “crisis” situations, potentially expanding the scope of speech restrictions during periods of political or social tension.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s Response and Advocacy
As a legal defense organization committed to protecting fundamental rights, Alliance Defending Freedom has outlined a strategy to address the challenges posed by the Digital Services Act. The legal organization is “committed to challenging violations of free speech resulting from the DSA and building critical momentum to repeal or substantially reform this censorial framework.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is working to equip stakeholders with legal strategies to contest the regulation, including potential actions for annulment before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), preliminary reference procedures, and engagement in the DSA review process scheduled for November 2025.
Through their legal expertise and international advocacy work, Alliance Defending Freedom continues to defend principles of free expression and religious liberty in the digital sphere, recognizing that while certain harmful content requires restriction, overly broad censorship regimes threaten the fundamental freedoms necessary for democratic discourse and religious expression.
