UK campaigner targeted by Trump accuses tech giants of ‘sociopathic greed’ | UK news

A British counter-disinformation campaigner who the Trump administration says faces possible removal from the US has said he is being targeted by arrogant and “sociopathic” tech companies for trying to hold them to account.

Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH), is among five European citizens banned from entering the US by the state department after being accused of forcing tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints.

Ahmed lives legally in Washington DC with his American wife and daughter, which means he is at risk of deportation. A court late Thursday granted him a temporary restraining order to prevent any attempt to remove or detain him from the United States.

Ahmed told the Guardian he believed he was chosen for his work seeking greater accountability and transparency for social media and AI firms, which led Elon Musk’s X to unsuccessfully sue CCDH.

Ahmed, who is a friend of Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, said it was another attempt to deflect accountability and transparency.

“This has never been about politics,” he said, adding that his organization worked successfully with the first Trump administration and would do so again if asked.

“The problem is people who don’t want to be held accountable and who are corrupting the system because of the influence of big money in Washington and trying to change it to their will, and their will is unaccountable,” he said.

“There is no other industry that operates with such arrogance, indifference, lack of humility and sociopathic greed to the detriment of people.”

In addition to Ahmed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also banned former EU commissioner Thierry Breton. He accused the five of leading “organized efforts to force American platforms to censor, demonize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”

State Department official Sarah Rogers said Published on X: “Our message is clear: If you spend your career promoting censorship of American speech, you are not welcome on American soil.”

The sanctions are seen as the latest attack on European regulations targeting hate speech and misinformation. The British government could be further targeted if the Trump administration steps up its attacks on technology regulations, campaigners in the UK have said.

Ahmed, who started his career working with Labor politicians in Westminster, said he had not yet received any official notification from the US government and believed the case against him was unfounded. “I’m pretty confident our first amendment rights will be upheld by the court,” he said.

Ahmed, who spent Christmas away from his wife and young daughter amid the legal battle, said the next hearing on Monday is expected to confirm the protective order preventing the U.S. government from arresting him.

He said it “makes sense to us, given that in every other case where someone has withdrawn their green card in the last few months, they have been arrested, detained, and often smuggled hundreds or thousands of miles away from their friends, family, and support networks.”

CCDH has previously angered Musk over reports describing the rise of racist, antisemitic and extremist content since he took over X. Musk unsuccessfully tried to sue CCDH last year before labeling it a “criminal organization.”

More recently, CCDH published a report warning about the harmful responses produced by the latest version of ChatGPT when asked questions about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

“We have seen social media and AI companies come under increasing pressure as a result of organizations like mine,” Ahmed said. “No one likes to be exposed as a liar or a hypocrite, but they call their friends in the government or they call their pit bull litigation lawyers and start filing lawsuits.”

Ahmed said being targeted was especially jarring, given that hate speech and misinformation have become an increasingly bipartisan issue and have been voiced as concerns by some Republican politicians as well as Democrats.

Still, he said he was ready to respond with a swift legal response when he heard the news. “When you go up against the biggest corporations in the world and you go through the experiences we have, when you get sued by the richest man in the world, you immediately become dissociated and compartmentalized.”

He said there was a price anyway. “Nothing I’ve experienced can compare to the parents I sat next to who lost their children,” Ahmed said. “I chose to take on the world’s largest corporations, hold them accountable, speak truth to power. That comes with a price. My family understands that.”

“The only time I’ve ever been upset was last night when my wife told me our child said the sixth word, and then I cried a little.”

Asked whether UK politicians should continue to use X, Ahmed told PA: “Politicians have to decide for themselves, but every time they post on