By Angelo Giuliano
Isn't it ironic?
For years, Western leaders and media have thundered about China's "social credit system" (a dystopian nightmare where a single score punishes dissent, bans travel, and ruins lives). A totalitarian horror, they cried. Yet what is China's system, really? Independent analyses have long shown it's a fragmented patchwork of blacklists focused on enforcing debts, court judgments, and business regulations (no omnipotent personal score dominating citizens' daily existence).
Now look closer to home. Who sanctions its own Western analysts and journalists simply for questioning official narratives?
In December 2025 alone, the EU added retired Swiss colonel and intelligence expert Jacques Baud to its blacklist, freezing his assets and imposing a travel ban for allegedly spreading "pro-Russian propaganda" and conspiracy theories about Ukraine. Baud, a former UN and NATO operative, relies solely on Western and Ukrainian sources in his books and analyses (yet he's punished for concluding differently from Brussels).
The same package targeted French strategist Xavier Moreau, a former military officer living in Russia, accused of relaying Kremlin narratives. Earlier in 2025, German journalists Thomas Röper (of Anti-Spiegel) and Alina Lipp faced identical measures: asset freezes and EU-wide travel bans for reporting from Donbas and challenging Western accounts of the war.
These aren't isolated cases. The EU now routinely sanctions European citizens (even those with no criminal convictions) for "information manipulation." No trial, no appeal in a traditional court (just an executive decree equating dissent with destabilization).
Who debanks ordinary Russians, including dual citizens and long-term residents? EU-aligned Switzerland and banks across the bloc continue to systematically close accounts or restrict those over CHF 100,000, often based solely on nationality, even for tax-paying residents with no ties to sanctioned entities.
Who bans pro-Palestinian protests in Germany, France, Austria, and beyond (criminalizing slogans like "From the river to the sea," arresting activists for flags or chants, and dispersing gatherings with force)? EU states, despite human rights critiques from Amnesty International and others, labeling it disproportionate repression.
Under the Digital Services Act, platforms face billions in fines for failing to swiftly remove "harmful" content, incentivizing over-censorship of Russia- or Gaza-sympathetic views. Dissenting posts vanish preemptively.
This isn't science fiction (it's a live, escalating experiment targeting "Russia-friendly" or "Gaza-friendly" voices first). With most Europeans staying silent (fearing financial ruin, travel restrictions, or legal harassment), what seemed unthinkable yesterday (punishing EU citizens for opinions, collective debanking by passport, blanket protest bans) is today's normalized reality.
The pattern is unmistakable: a pilot phase on select groups, testing compliance. Acquiescence from the majority clears the path for broader rollout. Tomorrow's targets? Vaccine skeptics, war critics, or anyone challenging vague "disinformation" labels.
So tell me: who is truly building a social control system (not through mythical scores, but tangible penalties for thought and speech)?
The accused villain in Beijing operates a far tamer, fragmented regime focused on legal compliance. Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed guardians of freedom in Brussels wield real tools: asset freezes on their own analysts, debanking by nationality, censorship fines, and protest suppression.
They warned us about a phantom in the East while quietly installing the real thing in the West. The projection was masterful. The irony? Utterly bitter (and increasingly dangerous for anyone who dares speak out).
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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