U.S. Bars 5 Europeans It Says Pressured Tech Firms To Censor American Viewpoints Online | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department introduced Tuesday it was barring 5 Europeans it accused of main efforts to strain U.S. tech companies to censor or suppress American viewpoints.

The Europeans, characterised by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “weaponized” nongovernmental organizations, fell afoul of a brand new visa coverage introduced in May to limit the entry of foreigners deemed accountable for censorship of protected speech within the United States.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” Rubio posted on X. “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

The 5 Europeans have been recognized by Sarah Rogers, the beneath secretary of state for public diplomacy, in a sequence of posts on social media. They embrace the leaders of organizations that deal with digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over broadcasting a web based interview with Donald Trump.

Rubio’s assertion mentioned they superior international authorities censorship campaigns towards Americans and U.S. firms, which he mentioned created “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the U.S.

The motion to bar them from the U.S. is a part of a Trump administration marketing campaign towards international affect over on-line speech, utilizing immigration regulation reasonably than platform rules or sanctions.

The 5 Europeans named by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, chief government of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAssist, a German group; Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index; and former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was accountable for digital affairs.

Rogers in her publish on X known as Breton, a French enterprise government and former finance minister, the “mastermind” behind the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict necessities designed to maintain web customers secure on-line. This consists of flagging dangerous or unlawful content material like hate speech.

She referred to Breton warning Musk of a potential “amplification of harmful content” by broadcasting his livestream interview with Trump in August 2024 when he was operating for president.

Breton responded Tuesday on X by noting that every one 27 EU members voted for the Digital Services Act in 2022. “To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is,’” he wrote.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot mentioned France condemns the visa restrictions on Breton and the 4 others. Also posting on X, he mentioned the DSA was adopted to make sure that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online.” He mentioned it “has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way concerns the United States.”

Most Europeans are coated by the Visa Waiver Program, which suggests they don’t essentially want visas to return into the nation. They do, nevertheless, want to finish a web based utility previous to arrival beneath a system run by the Department of Homeland Security, so it’s potential that no less than a few of these 5 individuals have been flagged to DHS, a U.S. official mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity to debate particulars not publicly launched.

Other visa restriction insurance policies have been introduced this 12 months, together with bans focusing on international guests from sure African and Middle Eastern international locations and the Palestinian Authority. Visitors from some international locations could possibly be required to publish a monetary bond when making use of for a visa.

Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.