The US State Department announced it would refuse entry permits to a group of five people, including a ex-European Union official, for allegedly seeking to "coerce" American online companies into silencing perspectives they oppose.
"These radical activists and aggressive non-profits have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states - in each case targeting American speakers and American companies," stated US diplomat Marco Rubio.
The former European tech regulator implied that a "witch hunt" was underway.
Officials labeled Breton as the "key designer" of the European Union's online content law, which mandates speech regulations on social media firms.
A Divisive Regulation
Yet, the act has frustrated certain right-leaning Americans who view it as seeking to censor conservative viewpoints. EU authorities rejects this characterization.
Breton has clashed with the billionaire entrepreneur, the world's richest man, over obligations to adhere to European regulations.
EU regulators recently fined X 120 million euros over its verification system – the inaugural penalty under the DSA. It said the platform's system was "misleading" because the firm was not "meaningfully verifying users".
As a countermove, the platform prevented the Commission from making adverts on its platform.
Responses and Additional Restrictions
Reacting to the visa ban, the former commissioner wrote on X: "Addressing the US: Censorship does not lie where you think it is."
Clare Melford, who heads the British disinformation research group, was also listed.
A senior US diplomat Sarah B Rogers alleged the GDI of using US taxpayer money "to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press".
A GDI spokesperson characterized the visa sanctions as "a repressive move on free expression and an egregious act of state-led suppression".
"Their actions today are immoral, unlawful, and un-American," the spokesperson added.
Another figure of the an online hate watchdog, a nonprofit that fights digital hatred and misinformation, was also handed a ban.
Rogers called Mr Ahmed a "key collaborator with efforts to misuse the state apparatus against American people".
Additionally facing restrictions were two executives of a German organization, which the US officials said helped enforce the DSA.
Responding, the two leaders called it an "attempt to silence by a government that is showing disregard for the rule of law".
"We will not be intimidated by a government that uses claims of suppression to silence those who defend human rights," they concluded.
Policy Justification
Rubio said that steps had been taken to impose entry bans on "agents of the international suppression network" who would be "typically prohibited from entering the United States".
"The administration has been explicit that his America First foreign policy rejects infringements of American sovereignty. Foreign-imposed regulations by overseas regulators aimed at US expression is no exception," he affirmed.
