The US administration has imposed visa restrictions on European officials and NGO leaders, accusing them of involvement in the censorship of free speech online. The move has become part of a broader confrontation between Washington and EU regulators over the Digital Services Act and Europe’s role in moderating online content. In Brussels, the measures were interpreted as political pressure, with officials saying they are prepared to defend the EU’s regulatory autonomy.
European politicians and technology regulators reacted sharply to the US State Department’s decision to bar five European citizens from entering the country, describing the move as “an act of repression”. Washington, for its part, says the individuals are linked to the censorship of digital free expression.
Escalating the Trump administration’s standoff with European oversight bodies, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the United States intends to “shut the door to leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex”. Visa sanctions were imposed on Thierry Breton, the former chief digital regulator at the European Commission, as well as on the heads of organisations involved in monitoring hate speech and online disinformation.
The following day, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, condemned the travel restrictions and reaffirmed the bloc’s “sovereign right” to regulate economic activity “in line with our democratic values and international obligations”. An official statement stressed that “if necessary, we will respond swiftly and decisively to protect our regulatory autonomy from unjustified measures”.
Two of those targeted—Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, co-executive directors of the German human rights organisation HateAid—described the US action as “an act of repression by a government that increasingly disregards the rule of law and seeks, by any means, to silence its critics”. In a written comment, they added: “We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression”.
Responding to the restrictions imposed on him, Thierry Breton asked on the social media platform X: “Has the McCarthy-era witch hunt returned?” He added: “To our American friends—censorship is not where you are looking for it.”
Trump’s First Year Revealed a Mismatch Between the Long-Term Interests of the United States and Europe
The EU Maintains Its Alliance With Washington Without a Strategy in Case It Is Lost
Trump’s Strategy Reshapes Washington’s View of Europe’s Place
The New U.S. Course Undermines the Old Partnership Model and Increases Political Pressure on the EU
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, “strongly condemned” the visa restrictions imposed on Thierry Breton and four other European citizens. He said the European Digital Services Act, which regulates social networks and other digital platforms and has drawn sharp opposition from the Trump administration, “has absolutely no extraterritorial effect and in no way concerns the United States. Europe’s peoples are free and sovereign and cannot accept rules for their digital space imposed from outside”.
Other targets of the US visa sanctions include Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the London-and Washington-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, and Claire Melford, head of the UK-based Global Disinformation Index. US deputy secretary of state Sarah B Rogers accused the GDI of using American taxpayers’ money “to promote censorship and to blacklist American speech and media”. A spokesperson for the organisation responded that the visa sanctions amounted to “an authoritarian attack on free speech and a flagrant act of state censorship”, adding that it was particularly “deeply ironic” to hear accusations of censorship from an administration that itself uses “the power of the state to silence critics speaking within the bounds of legally protected free expression”.
In May, Marco Rubio announced a new visa policy targeting “foreign nationals who censor Americans”. The restrictions imposed on Tuesday appear to be a direct extension of that initiative. Officials in the Trump administration have steadily intensified pressure on what they see as European encroachments on freedom of expression. In February, vice-president JD Vance addressed the Munich Security Conference, accusing European authorities of intimidation and censorship of social platforms, and criticising Germany’s main political parties for sidelining the right-wing Alternative for Germany party.
Earlier this month, the administration published its National Security Strategy, accusing the European Union of “censoring free speech and suppressing political opposition”, and warning that Europe risks “civilisational erasure” by allowing high levels of migration. In the same month, European regulators fined the social platform X, owned by Trump’s former key adviser Elon Musk, $140m for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act. In Washington, the fine drew sharp criticism—Vance wrote on X itself: “The EU should uphold free speech, not attack American companies over nonsense”.