Conservative influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek has had her shadow ban on X lifted, but Brussels surveillance and censorship machine may just be getting started. While Vlaardingerbroek is a huge name, and X owner Elon Musk may have personally intervened to lift her shadow ban, similar help may not be coming for many other dissident and alternative media accounts across Europe.
Last week, Vlaardingerbroe had posted a video on X about her ban, saying it was only in the European Union that her account was being censored due to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
Now, presumably at the request of Elon Musk, her account is again fully visible across the EU. Vlaardingerbroek wrote on X: “Great news: It seems that the shadow ban has been lifted. I’m almost glad this happened though, because at least now everyone got to see the EU and their lust for censorship in action. Thank you @elonmusk for your unwavering commitment to free speech.”
My content is being restricted in the EU under the Digital Services Act – the very censorship act I’ve been warning about for years.
Under the guise of "online safety" they put a search ban on my account and flagged my posts as sensitive/age restricted content.
The EU hates… pic.twitter.com/L9HAlOT2Bh
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) November 14, 2025Previously, users in the EU could not search for Vlaardingerbroek’s posts and her content was marked as “sensitive” and hit with an age restriction.
She has approximately 1.2 million followers and quickly went viral for pointing out the restrictions her account was facing.
Vlaardingerbroek says the move by the EU came after she had criticized Brussels policies and its bureaucrats, specifically warning Europeans that the DSA would be used to silence political dissent.
“My content is being restricted in the EU under the Digital Services Act – the very censorship act I’ve been warning about for years. Under the guise of “online safety” they put a search ban on my account and flagged my posts as sensitive/age restricted content. The EU hates free speech because it threatens their power.”
Just found out I’m shadowbanned on X.
I searched my account on someone else’s phone and it did not appear in the search results. Only fakes.
When I finally found it, it said: “This account possibly contains sensitive content” and she couldn’t follow me.
What the heck is this? pic.twitter.com/6sa6TM9gnl
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) November 14, 2025Her father also commented on her shadow ban, stating that von der Leyen already had a history of pursuing censorship when she was a German politician 15 years ago.
“‘A fox may lose its fur, but it never loses its tricks.’ Ursula von der Leyen cannot suppress her authoritarian tendencies. In 2009, she attempted to censor the internet in Germany, introducing a law that she said was intended to combat the spread of child pornography. In truth, she wanted to ban all politically dissident voices. She failed miserably, there was simply too much resistance at many levels. Now, 15 years later, Ursula von der Leyen is trying again at a European level, with the Digital Services Act. Again the objectives of the law are presented as noble, but in truth this is a Digital Suppression Act. Let us all ensure that she fails miserably again and that Europe does not become the dictatorship von der Leyen envisions. Fight for our freedom of speech!”
The news come at a time when Remix News has also seen many of its posts increasingly censored on X.
As reported in a new article from UnHerd, the EU has stepped up its censorship efforts, all under the guise of “protecting democracy.” Thomas Fazi writes:
As part of the Democracy Shield, the Commission proposes the creation of a Monitoring Centre that would identify and remove “false content” and “disinformation” from the internet. As Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President for Security and Democracy, stated, the Shield will enable Europe to “respond faster and more effectively to information manipulation and hybrid threats”. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, made no secret of the anti-Russian nature of the initiative: “we are seeing campaigns, including from Russia, specifically designed to polarize our citizens, undermine trust in our institutions and pollute politics in our countries.
The term “independent” appears repeatedly in the press release. A new “independent European network of fact-checkers” will be set up in all official EU languages, while the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU’s flagship “fact-checking” network, financed to the tune of almost €30 million, will gain new “independent” analytical powers to monitor elections and crisis situations. But, remember, independence in Brussels translates to financial dependence on the Commission. Indeed, to guarantee this “independence”, the Commission promises generous funding to “independent” NGOs and media outlets.
The Democracy Shield builds upon the recent Digital Services Act (DSA), the most sweeping internet regulation ever implemented in Europe. In theory, these initiatives are meant to protect democracy; in practice, they do the opposite. Their aim isn’t to “fight disinformation”, as claimed, but rather to control the narrative at a time when Europe’s political elites are facing unprecedented levels of public distrust, by centralising control over the flow of information and imposing a single “truth” defined by Brussels. In short, the European Commission is building a continent-wide censorship machine.
Notably, the story Remix News ran about young Killian having his face carved open by a Caribbean migrant while on a night out in Paris with his girlfriend is not “false” or “fake news” or “disinformation.” The victim, his girlfriend, and the French media have widely reported on all the details of the case. In fact, Remix News was only running interviews translated from France. However, the entire story is widely censored across social media, presumably through the EU DSA, because it does not fit the narrative Brussels wants to promote.
Censoring stories such as this one reveals the totalitarian nature of the EU project’s censorship drive. It was never about “protecting” democracy but instead about obfuscating and stifling dissident voices as well as the victims of establishment regime policies, such as Killian in Paris.
At stake is power. European right-wing parties such as National Rally and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) increasingly represent a threat to the parties that have long controlled these key national governments and the levers of power in Brussels. The European public is growing more and more fed up with faltering economies, growing inequality, and mass immigration. In response, the EU is pulling out all the stops to ensure these right-leaning parties, known for their skepticism of the EU as well as support for strong borders, do not gain any further support among the public.
Expect more and more stories of migrant crimes, political oppression, and even stories about censorship itself to be censored across Europe. As Remix News wrote, these stories are not going away, and the European establishment’s only response will be more censorship.
