US Rejects Entry Permits to Ex-EU Commissioner and Others Over Online Platform Rules
American diplomatic officials announced it would deny visas to five individuals, including a former EU commissioner, for allegedly seeking to "coerce" US-based online companies into suppressing perspectives they disagree with.
"These individuals and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by other governments - in each case focusing on US voices and US firms," said US diplomat the official.
The former European tech regulator remarked that a "witch hunt" was underway.
Breton was described as the "mastermind" of the European Union's online content law, which enforces content moderation on social media firms.
A Divisive Regulation
Yet, it has angered certain right-leaning Americans who see it as seeking to censor right-wing opinions. Brussels denies this.
Breton has clashed with the billionaire entrepreneur, the world's richest man, over requirements to follow EU rules.
The European Commission recently fined X €120m over its verification system – the inaugural penalty under the DSA. It said the platform's system was "misleading" because the firm was not "meaningfully verifying users".
As a countermove, the platform blocked the European body from making adverts on its platform.
Reactions and Broader Bans
Reacting to the entry restriction, Breton posted on X: "To our American friends: Speech suppression does not lie where you think it is."
Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based disinformation research group, was also listed.
A senior US diplomat Sarah B Rogers alleged the GDI of using American public funds "to encourage censorship and blacklisting of US expression and media".
A representative for the group said the entry bans as "a repressive move on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship".
"These measures today are unethical, illegal, and contrary to American values," the spokesperson added.
Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that fights digital hatred and false information, was also handed a ban.
The undersecretary called Mr Ahmed a "primary partner with campaigns to misuse the government against US citizens".
Additionally facing restrictions were two executives of a German organization, which the State Department said aided in implementing the DSA.
Responding, the two leaders called it an "act of repression by a administration that is increasingly disregarding the rule of law".
"We will not be intimidated by a state that uses accusations of censorship to muzzle those who defend fundamental freedoms," they added.
Official Rationale
The Secretary of State stated that steps had been taken to impose entry bans on "representatives of the global censorship-industrial complex" who would be "typically prohibited from entering the United States".
"President Trump has been explicit that his national sovereignty diplomatic stance rejects violations of US autonomy. Foreign-imposed regulations by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception," he affirmed.
