US Rejects Visas to Ex-EU Commissioner and Others Concerning Online Platform Regulations
The US State Department stated it would refuse entry permits to five individuals, including a former EU commissioner, for reportedly seeking to "pressure" American online companies into silencing viewpoints they disagree with.
"These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by other governments - in each case targeting US voices and US firms," said US diplomat Marco Rubio.
Thierry Breton implied that a "witch hunt" was taking place.
Officials labeled Breton as the "architect" of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), which enforces speech regulations on social media firms.
A Contentious Law
Yet, the act has frustrated certain right-leaning Americans who view it as seeking to censor right-wing opinions. Brussels denies this.
Breton has clashed with the billionaire entrepreneur, owner of platform X, over obligations to adhere to EU rules.
The European Commission imposed a penalty on X €120m over its blue tick badges – the inaugural penalty under the DSA. It said the platform's system was "misleading" because the firm was not "properly authenticating users".
As a countermove, Musk's site blocked the European body from making adverts on its platform.
Responses and Additional Restrictions
Responding to the entry restriction, Breton posted on X: "Addressing the US: Censorship does not lie where you think it is."
Clare Melford, who leads the British Global Disinformation Index (GDI), was also listed.
US Undersecretary of State the official accused the GDI of using US taxpayer money "to exhort suppression and targeting of American speech and press".
A representative for the group said the entry bans as "an authoritarian attack on free expression and a blatant example of government censorship".
"Their actions today are immoral, illegal, and un-American," they stated.
Another figure of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that fights digital hatred and misinformation, was similarly issued a ban.
The undersecretary labeled Mr Ahmed a "key collaborator with campaigns to misuse the state apparatus against American people".
Additionally facing restrictions were two executives of HateAid, which the State Department said helped enforce the DSA.
Responding, the two leaders called it an "act of repression by a administration that is showing disregard for the legal principles".
"We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who defend human rights," they concluded.
Official Rationale
Rubio said that action was initiated to enact entry bans on "representatives of the global censorship-industrial complex" who would be "typically prohibited from entering the United States".
"President Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects infringements of US autonomy. Foreign-imposed regulations by foreign censors aimed at American speech is unacceptable," he affirmed.
