The US State Department said on Tuesday it would deny visas to former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and four others in protest over European regulation of social media.
The move comes amid rising tensions between the US and Europe, with President Donald Trump’s administration accusing Brussels of eroding freedoms.
In addition to Breton, the targets of the US visa ban:
- Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German NGO HateAid
- Imran Ahmed, British CEO of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Claire Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI)
Why is America denying them visa?
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the five who have been targeted by the visa ban have “led organized efforts to force American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”
She did not initially reveal the names of the people facing visa bans, but Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers later identified them in a post on social media.
Rogers described Breton as the “mastermind” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes content moderation and other standards on major social media platforms operating in Europe.
The State Department stated that HateAid serves as a trusted flag bearer to enforce the DSA.
What was the reaction?
Breton described the ban as a “witch hunt”.
“To our American friends: Censorship is not where you think,” he wrote in a post on X.
GDI called the US action “immoral, illegal and un-American” and “an authoritarian attack on free speech and a despicable act of government censorship”.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery