US bars five Europeans it says pressured tech firms to censor American viewpoints online
WASHINGTON– The State Department announced Tuesday that it was excluding five Europeans it accused of leading efforts to pressure U.S. technology companies to censor or suppress American views.
The Europeans, described by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “militarized” nongovernmental organizations, have encountered a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censoring protected speech in the United States.
“For too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms into punishing American views they oppose,” Rubio posted on X. “The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these blatant acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
The five Europeans were identified by Sarah Rogers, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, in a series of social media posts. They include the leaders of organizations that fight digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over the broadcast of an online interview with Donald Trump.
Rubio’s statement said they enabled foreign governments’ censorship campaigns against Americans and American businesses, which he said created “potentially serious negative foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
The action to bar them from the United States is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions.
The five Europeans named by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Joséphine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization; Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index; and former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, responsible for overseeing social media rules.
Rogers, in his article on This includes reporting harmful or illegal content such as hate speech.
She referenced Breton warning Musk of possible “amplification of harmful content” by broadcasting his live interview with Trump in August 2024, when he was running for president.
Breton responded on Tuesday on
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France condemned the visa restrictions imposed on Breton and the four others. Also posted on X, he said the DSA was passed to ensure that “what is illegal offline will also be illegal online.” He said it “has absolutely no extraterritorial scope and does not concern the United States in any way.”
In a statement, Ballon and von Hodenberg, co-CEOs of HateAid, called it “an act of repression by a government that increasingly disregards the rule of law and attempts to silence its critics by any means necessary.”
Most Europeans are covered by the Visa Waiver Program, which means they do not necessarily need a visa to enter the country. However, they must complete an online application before arriving under a system managed by the Department of Homeland Security. So it’s possible that at least some of those five people were reported to DHS, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not made public.
Other visa restriction policies were announced this year, as well as bans on foreign visitors from some African and Middle Eastern countries and the Palestinian Authority. Visitors from certain countries may be required to post a financial deposit when applying for a visa.
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Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
