A former EU commissioner has hit back after his US visa was suspended over allegations of censorship.
The Trump administration has suspended visas for Thierry Breton, the former European Union Commissioner for the Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation activists for censoring US social media platforms.
“The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who led a coordinated effort to force U.S. platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress U.S. views with which we disagree,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
He added: “These radical activists and weaponized NGOs are advancing a foreign censorship crackdown, in each case targeting American speakers and American companies.”
As such, their entry into the United States “could have a significant negative impact on foreign policy.”
“Based on these decisions, the Department will take steps to impose visa restrictions on agents of the global censorship and industrial complex, resulting in them generally being prohibited from entering the United States.”
Breton, who served as EU commissioner from 2019 to 2024, wrote about X: “As a reminder, 90% of the European Parliament (a democratically elected body) and all 27 member states voted unanimously for the DSA.”
“To my American friends: “Censorship is not where you think it is.”
The incident comes as President Donald Trump continues to tighten travel restrictions on foreign travelers and criticizes Europe.
Mr. Rubio did not say who his department took action against, but Deputy Secretary of Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers later took action against X.
Josephine Baron, co-leader of HateAid and member of Germany’s Digital Services Advisory Board, was among those working on the anti-disinformation campaign to get the sanctions. Her co-leader, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, was also influenced. CNBC has reached out to Barron and von Hodenberg for comment.
The ban is part of an effort to enforce what Mr. Rogers called the United States’ “red lines” and “extraterritorial censorship of Americans.”
In an interview with GB News on December 4, Mr Rogers criticized the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), saying the law was being applied extraterritorially due to comments made by US citizens about US politics on US-based platforms.
Europe’s DSA and the UK’s OSA are among the few laws aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech and improving children’s safety online.
The DSA forces big tech companies like Google and Meta to police illegal content more aggressively or face hefty fines, while the OSA law requires age verification on adult sites and many other platforms.
