Crackdowns on Free Speech Rise Across a Europe Wary of Terror

That's such a bullshit spin. The people are not wary of terror; governments are using it as an excuse to whisk away liberties.

In Spain, ETA had been active 1960s–2010(ish)[0], in UK, the IRA waged a (victorious) bona fide terror campaign 1960s–1998[1]. Many Western-European countries faced domestic terror organizations, and life went on.

The only difference now is that the threat is mostly imaginary, victims counted in units or dozens instead of thousands, and the measures are draconian.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ETA_attacks [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

Why do western democratic governments punish their populations for what criminals do? This "crackdown" makes free speech into a privilege, something to be withheld by The Authorities as the consequences of bad actions. Since there are very, very few terrorists, The Authorities are punishing the masses for the actions of a very few.

I don't think this will end well. The price of liberty is a lot smaller than the cost of oppression, as Mark Twain once said.