US denies visas to ex-EU commissioner and others over social media rules
The US State Department said it would not grant visas to five people, including a former EU commissioner, because they were trying to “force” American social media platforms to suppress views they oppose.
“These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have engaged in advanced censorship pressures by foreign governments — in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. he said.
Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s former top technology regulator, suggested a “witch hunt” was being carried out.
Breton was described by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the “mastermind” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes content moderation on social media firms.
But this angered some US conservatives, who saw it as an effort to censor right-wing views. Brussels denies this.
Breton has clashed with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of X, over obligations to comply with EU rules.
The European Commission was recently fined €120m (£105m) over blue checkmarks – First fine under DSA. The platform’s blue check system was described as “deceptive” because the company “does not meaningfully verify users.”
In response, Musk’s site blocked the Commission from advertising on its platform.
Reacting to the visa ban, Breton shared the following on X: “To our American friends: Censorship is not where you think it is.”
Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), was also on the list.
US Under Secretary of State Sarah B Rogers accused GDI of using US taxpayers’ money “to encourage the censorship and blacklisting of American speech and the press”.
A GDI spokesperson told the BBC that “the visa sanctions announced today are an authoritarian attack on freedom of expression and an appalling act of government censorship”.
“The Trump Administration is once again using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor, and silence voices with which they disagree. Their actions today are immoral, illegal, and un-American.”
Imran Ahmed was also banned from the Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit organization that fights online hate and misinformation.
Rogers called Mr. Ahmed “a key collaborator in the Biden Administration’s efforts to weaponize the government against U.S. citizens.”
The BBC has reached out to CCDH for comment.
Also subject to bans were Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon from HateAid, a German organization that the State Department said helped implement the DSA.
In a statement to the BBC, the two CEOs described it as “an act of repression by a government that increasingly disregards the rule of law and seeks to silence its critics by any means necessary.”
“We will not fear a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who defend human rights and freedom of expression.”
Rubio said steps were being taken to impose visa restrictions on “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, would be generally barred from entering the United States.”
“President Trump has made clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception,” he added.
