Essentially it boils down to having to trust the lawmakers, and I do by and large trust the lawmakers in the EU, moreso than in the states.
People don’t deserve punishment for the contents of their conscience or their beliefs, no matter how wrong their beliefs are. To take a man’s freedom for speaking his mind is one of the most abhorrent things you can do in this world.
Why is it that the Nazi iconography and holocaust denial is always singled out, but no one ever bans Soviet apologia or imagery? Could it be that the powerful forces in Europe are more sympathetic to one side than the other? Both are clear cut cases of murderous regimes whose ideas belong in the history books, but already the censors you are eager to trust are abusing their power to further their political agenda.
Is that actually a bigger problem in the EU than it has been in the past?
There have always been admirers of the USSR in every country, but if I recall, they've always been a tiny percentage compared to Nazi apologists, aside from Russia. I also don't recall any of them being outright racist and calling for wholesale destruction in the way that other extremists have done.
I could be wrong there - I'm not a huge consumer of Nazi or Soviet propaganda.
Whatever the people with power say it is. The whole point of free speech is to prevent this kind of thing. This isn’t some minor flaw you’ve identified, but the entire reason why freedom of speech is necessary.