The European Union (EU) and several member states have hit back at sanctions placed on five Europeans working in tech regulation by the United States government.
The US State department imposed five visa bans on the Europeans on Tuesday, local time, accusing the regulators of “coercing” American social media and tech companies into censoring viewpoints the EU opposed and imposing burdensome regulations.
Former tech regulator at the European Commission Thierry Breton was among the five to be banned from travelling to the US, as Washington described him as the mastermind of the EU’s Digital Services Act, imposing moderation and content standards on social media giants operating in Europe.
The legislation aimed to improve safety on the internet by compelling tech giants to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sex abuse material.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the States would not tolerate “egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship”, in a post to X, despite EU leaders’ protests the EU’s Digital Services Act does not have an extraterritorial effect.
The European Commission said it had “requested clarifications” on the decision.
“We have requested clarifications from the US authorities and remain engaged,” it stated.
“If needed, we will respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures.
“Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair, and level playing field for all companies, applied fairly and without discrimination.”
Mr Breton, the most high-profile individual targeted, wrote on X: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”
The bans also targeted Imran Ahmed, the British CEO of the US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index, according to US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.
Germany’s justice ministry said the two German activists had the government’s “support and solidarity” and the visa bans on them were unacceptable, adding that HateAid supported people affected by unlawful digital hate speech.
“Anyone who describes this as censorship is misrepresenting our constitutional system,” it said in a statement.
“The rules by which we want to live in the digital space in Germany and in Europe are not decided in Washington.”
Britain said it was committed to upholding the right to free speech.
“While every country has the right to set its own visa rules, we support the laws and institutions which are working to keep the internet free from the most harmful content,” a British government spokesperson said in a statement.
A Global Disinformation Index spokesperson called the visa bans “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship.”
“The Trump Administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor, and silence voices they disagree with,” they said.
“Their actions today are immoral, unlawful, and un-American.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU would defend “regulatory autonomy”.
“France condemns the visa restriction measures taken by the United States against Thierry Breton and four other European figures,” he said.
“These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul wrote in an X post “the DSA was democratically adopted by the EU for the EU – it does not have extraterritorial effect”.
The DSA has riled the Trump administration, which accuses the EU of placing “undue” restrictions on freedom of expression in its efforts to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation.
It also argues that the DSA unfairly targets US tech giants and US citizens.
Trump officials were particularly upset earlier this month when Brussels’ sanctioned Elon Musk’s X platform, fining it 120 million euros for breaching online content rules. Musk and Breton have often sparred online over EU tech regulation, with Musk referring to him as the “tyrant of Europe”.
With Reuters.