The EU and EU member states started to ban unwanted Internet sites on a DNS level some years ago. At the start of the Ukraine war the EU imposed bans of Russian media not only on the DNS level, but also extended the bans on social media, messengers, search engines, cable tv providers etc.
The EU is also preparing legislation to break into encrypted messaging and was secretly working on a ban of Bitcoin.
New EU legislation targets unwanted content on social media (Digital Services Act) and if implemented would require Internet service providers to immediately and proactively filter and delete "illegal content, hate speech and disinformation", while allowing hate speech against Russians at the same time.
All these pushes to regulate and censor content on the Internet are highly problematic, inherently susceptible to power abuse and can be perceived as an attempt to take away freedom of speech and intimidate normal citizens.
Thanks for these links. I'm aware of most of them.
Freedom is something that I value a whole lot! Freedom of Speech as well. Though I also value Respect a whole lot. These days, quite a few individuals seem to not value Respect at all, resulting in whatever we see around us. But not only that, the internet fuels the rise of sub-groups that endanger societies and democracy. Because of that, governments want to control. But not only for this reason, also they have the idea that many individuals in societies need to be protected to not fall victim: eg financial scams; misinformation or blunt out verifiable lies. The latter seems to have become the norm since mister Trump showed the world how often one can wave things away as a lie whilst showing proof of the opposite. And what do we see? Too many people keep on believing and following such individuals.
These are problems in our societies today. Somehow these need to be addressed. Personally, I don't believe in censorship providing the solution. Though I understand why a certain form of censorship is now being implemented. I don't condone it though, but I understand. Having said that, in my country, all views and opinions have a platform, even on national TV and radio, regardless of the censorship that happens on the internet. Even on the internet, in my country hardly anything is not accessible.