The National Center for Public Policy Research's has filed a shareholder proposal with Microsoft Corporation that asks the company to consider if its European Security Program censors legitimate speech.
The proposal, submitted earlier this summer by the Free Enterprise Project , comes amid heightened scrutiny from policymakers and civil liberties advocates over state-sponsored censorship.
The European Union's Digital Services Act and related regulations threaten to export European-style censorship into the United States, according to the proposal.
Earlier this month, the co-creator of a U.K. sitcom "Father Ted" was arrested at London Heathrow Airport on allegedly over social media posts that criticized transgender people.
Microsoft's ESP, announced on June 4, 2025, provides European governments -- including all 27 EU member states and the U.K. -- free access to powerful AI-driven tools and partnerships with groups like Europol and the CyberPeace Institute.
Both entities cite combating "hate speech" and "harmful content" as part of their mission. The shareholder proposal warns that these are vague and manipulable terms that risk being weaponized against lawful expression that would be protected under the U.S. Constitution.
"Microsoft is potentially taking on enormous risks by embedding itself in the EU's censorship infrastructure," said FEP Executive Director Stefan Padfield. "Shareholders deserve to know whether these initiatives could make the company complicit in silencing Americans' speech at the behest of foreign governments -- and whether those risks could lead to another multibillion-dollar scandal like Cambridge Analytica."
A recent Bloomberg story reported that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan demanded information from Microsoft about their work on artificial intelligence and whether they colluded to censor free speech.
Jordan specifically requesting “documents that show communications between ‘any foreign government in partnership’ with the U.S. on speech issues, citing the E.U. and U.K.specifically.”
Another article accused Microsoft of “helping to build the censorship industry.”
The proposal warns that government censorship could harm shareholders "if corporate activities on behalf of governments have illiberal ends." The proposal said that Microsoft and other tech companies, were implicated in giving the NSA, FBI, and CIA access to users’ communications; contemporary critics speculated that associated damages could be in the tens of billions of dollars.
Facebook lost “roughly $134 billion in market value” in connection with the similar Cambridge Analytica scandal, CBS News reported. By making ESP available to EU member states, Microsoft risks being involved in another data breach scandal which could foreseeably cost the company billions. Additionally, Microsoft could be complicit in strengthening the EU’s ability to export its censorship back to the United Statesor be used as a conduit for “outsourcing these unconstitutional interventions.”14
Microsoft shareholders might well wonder why Microsoft would apparently ban “U.S. police departments from using generative AI for facial recognition”15 while granting foreign actors free use of its AI for related cybercrime initiatives. Accordingly, the requested report is warranted.
"Microsoft, like many large tech companies, is on the front line of developing a technology which will likely fundamentally change how people interact with computers, potentially forever," said FEP Associate Bennett Nuss. "However, those developing artificial intelligence cannot be willfully blind to the eminently foreseeable downstream effects of its creation, especially in the realm of automatic curtailment of human expression and free speech by the programs it creates and licenses."
Concerns over the EU's censorship model have grown significantly in recent weeks. In a letter to tech companies, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan demanded records of communications with foreign governments about speech regulation, citing the EU and U.K. specifically.
Separately, Alliance Defending Freedom has warned that the Digital Services Act "could cripple free speech even in America" by pressuring platforms to silence content that is disfavored by European regulators.
ADF's analysis echoes reporting from outlets such as The Daily Wire, which highlighted how members of Congress are increasingly alarmed at the EU's efforts to export its censorship regime across the Atlantic. Lawmakers say that U.S. companies could be effectively deputized by Brussels to regulate American political and religious expression.
"The stakes are high," Padfield continued. "If Microsoft's partnerships empower the EU to dictate what Americans can say online, then the company risks not only its reputation but also its bottom line. Shareholders must be assured that Microsoft is not becoming a conduit for unconstitutional foreign censorship."
FEP's shareholder resolution calls on Microsoft's Board of Directors to produce a report within the next year, at reasonable cost and omitting confidential details, assessing the risks of ESP being used to censor lawful speech.