The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa bans on a former European Union commissioner and anti-disinformation campaigners it says were involved in censoring U.S. social media platforms, \u2060in the latest move in a campaign aimed at European rules that U.S. officials say go beyond legitimate regulation. Trump officials have \u200cordered U.S. diplomats to \u2060build opposition to the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which is intended to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation, but which Washington says stifles free speech and imposes costs on U.S. \u200dtech companies. The visa bans come after the administration’s National Security Strategy this month said European leaders were censoring free speech and suppressing opposition to immigration policies that it said risk “civilisational erasure” for the continent. FIVE PEOPLE TARGETED Secretary of State Marco \u2060Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans “have led organized efforts to coerce Am
erican platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.” “These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states — in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Rubio said in an announcement. Rubio did not \u200cname those targeted, but Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers identified them on X, accusing the individuals of “fomenting censorship of American speech.” The most high-profile target was French former business executive Thierry Breton, who served as the European commissioner for \u2060the internal market from 2019-2024. Rogers called Breton “a mastermind” of the DSA and said he once threatened Trump ally and X owner Elon Musk ahead of an interview Musk conducted with Trump. Reuters was unable to immediately reach Breton for comment. Reuters reported in August that U.S. officials were considering sanctions on officials responsible for the DSA.
‘HARMFUL CONTENT’ The visa \u2060bans also hit Imran Ahmed, the British CEO of the U.S.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German nonprofit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), Rogers said. A spokesperson for \u200dGDI called the U.S. action “immoral, unlawful, and un-American” and “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship.” Rogers said Melford falsely labeled online comments as hate speech or disinformation and used U.S. taxpayers’ money to “exhort censorship and \u200cblacklisting of American speech and press.” The \u200bother organizations did not immediately respond \u200cto requests for comment. Melford, a former management consultant and TV executive, said in a video posted online in 2024 that she co-founded the GDI “to try to break the business model of harmful online content” by reviewing online news websit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa bans on a former European Union commissioner and anti-disinformation campaigners it says were involved in censoring U.S. social media platforms, \u2060in the latest move in a campaign aimed at European rules that U.S. officials say go beyond legitimate regulation. Trump officials have \u200cordered U.S. diplomats to \u2060build opposition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n