The Trump administration has issued visa bans against a former EU commissioner and several anti-disinformation activists, accusing them of censoring U.S. social media platforms. The move escalates a broader campaign against European regulations that U.S. officials claim have overstepped into illegitimate restriction of speech.
Trump officials have ordered U.S. diplomats to build opposition to the European Union’s landmark c (DSA), which is intended to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation, but which Washington says stifles free speech and imposes costs on U.S. tech 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 Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans “have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”
Rubio did not name 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 the 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.
‘Harmful Content’
The visa bans 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, Rogers said.
Melford, a former executive, stated that she co-founded the Global Disinformation Index to “break the business model of harmful online content.” By reviewing news sites, the index allows advertisers to avoid funding “polarizing and divisive” material and instead support “quality journalism.”
Rogers said Melford falsely labeled online comments as hate speech or disinformation and used U.S. taxpayers’ money to “exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
