European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over ‘censorship’ escalates | Technology
European leaders including Emmanuel Macron accused Washington of “pressure and intimidation” after the US imposed visa bans on five prominent European figures who are at the center of a campaign to impose laws regulating American tech companies.
On Tuesday, visa bans were imposed on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, two in Germany and two in the United Kingdom.
Others targeted include Imran Ahmed, British executive director of the US-based Center to Counter Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German nonprofit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.
Justifying the visa bans, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote about
Germany, Spain, Britain and many EU officials joined the French president in condemning the move; Brussels signaled that it could “respond quickly and decisively” against “unfair measures”.
DSA is viewed by Washington as a form of censorship; European leaders say regulations are necessary to control hate speech, but the debate threatens to become part of a much broader existing cultural and political conflict between Donald Trump’s administration and Europe. Artificial intelligence and digital technologies have always been a major area of conflict between the US and Europe; because these technologies are becoming increasingly central to wielding power.
Macron angrily condemned the visa ban. Again in X, he wrote: “These measures amount to intimidation and pressure aimed at undermining Europe’s digital sovereignty.” “The European Union’s digital regulations were adopted by the European Parliament and the Council following a democratic and sovereign process. They are implemented within Europe to ensure fair competition between platforms without targeting any third countries and to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not intended to be determined outside Europe.”
He added that he later spoke to French Breton and thanked him for his work. “We will not give up, we will protect the independence of Europe and the freedom of Europeans,” Macron said.
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said: “The people of Europe are free and sovereign and cannot allow the rules governing their digital space to be imposed on them by others.”
Breton, a former French finance minister and commissioner for the European internal market from 2019 to 2024, said: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?
“As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament (our democratically elected body) and all 27 member states voted unanimously for the DSA. To our American friends: censorship is not where you think.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Freedom of expression is the foundation of our strong and vibrant European democracy. We are proud of it. We will protect it.” A commission spokesman added: “We will respond quickly and decisively, if necessary, to defend our regulatory autonomy against unfair measures.”
In the UK, the government said it was “fully committed” to supporting freedom of expression.
EU law passed in 2022 requires major digital platforms to show they are taking steps to combat online risks, including the spread of illegal content, hate speech and the use of disinformation to manipulate election results.
Following a two-year investigation, Elon Musk’s X platform was this month fined €120 million (£104 million) for a series of transparency-related breaches, including deceiving users about verification checks and researcher access.
Washington said the EU was pursuing “unnecessary” restrictions on freedom of expression and that the DSA’s extraterritorial restrictions were designed to undermine US tech firms and US citizens.
Breton was replaced in the internal market role in the EU by another French politician, Stéphane Séjourné, who was vice-president of the Commission. Séjourné voiced her support for her predecessor, saying: “No sanctions can silence the sovereignty of the peoples of Europe. We stand in full solidarity with him and all the European peoples affected by this”.
Outlining the bans on Tuesday, US undersecretary for public diplomacy Sarah Rogers classified Breton as the “brains” of the DSA.
Germany’s justice ministry said the two German campaigners had the “support and solidarity” of the government and that visa bans were unacceptable, adding that HateAid supported people affected by illegal digital hate speech. German foreign minister Johann Wadephul reiterated his words about X: “The DSA was adopted democratically by the EU for the EU; it has no extraterritorial impact.
The Spanish foreign ministry also condemned the US measures in a statement: “A safe digital space, free from illegal content and disinformation, is a fundamental value for democracy in Europe and the responsibility of everyone.
“Anyone who describes this as censorship is misrepresenting our constitutional system. The rules we want to live by in the digital space in Germany and Europe are not determined in Washington.”
Dennis Radtke, a member of the European Parliament and member of the ruling German CDU, said: “Trump fans in Europe are defending this as a fight for free speech. Where exactly has an idea been suppressed? Where is the fight for free speech in terms of China and Russia? Here it is just about business and the fight against the rule of law.”
French socialist MP Raphaël Glucksmann said in his message to Rubio: “For too long, Europe has been weak in enforcing its own laws and defending its own interests. You chose to appease tyrants and oppose democracies. It is time for us to stand up. Kneel before Putin as much as you want, we are the free world now.”
“We are not a colony of the USA. We are Europeans, we must defend our laws, our principles, our interests. This scandalous sanction against Thierry Breton is a tribute to his fight for our sovereignty. We will continue this together. Until the end.”
This debate is the latest example of the tension between the United States and Europe. In August, Washington imposed sanctions on French judge Nicolas Yann Guillou, who sits at the international criminal court, over the court’s targeting of Israeli leaders and a past decision to investigate U.S. officials.
Michel Duclos, a former top French diplomat and senior researcher in geopolitics and diplomacy at the Institut Montaigne think tank, lamented the move, citing Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev’s recent visit to Miami for talks on the Ukraine war. He said: “Dmitriev celebrated in Miami, Breton rejected US visa: Europe is becoming the new Russia for Washington. This is reminiscent of the 1920s – America favoring the old enemy (Germany) over its old allies – but worse.”[Germany)againstitsformerallies–butworse”[Germany)againstitsformerallies–butworse”
Mika Beuster, president of the German Journalists Association, expressed solidarity with Berlin-based HateAid. “This is the purest form of censorship that we previously only knew from autocratic regimes,” Beuster said.
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