The U.S. State Department announced that it will deny visas to five individuals, including a former European Union commissioner, accusing them of attempting to “coerce” U.S.-based social media platforms into suppressing viewpoints they oppose.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that:
“These radical activists and militarized NGOs have advanced foreign state censorship measures—often targeting American speakers and American companies.”
Among those affected is Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner responsible for digital regulation, who described the move as a “witch hunt.” The State Department referred to Breton as the “architect” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), legislation that imposes strict content moderation rules on social media platforms.
The DSA has drawn criticism from U.S. conservatives, who view it as an attempt to censor right-wing opinions, a claim rejected by Brussels. Breton has also clashed publicly with Elon Musk, the owner of the platform X, over compliance with EU regulations.
Recently, the European Commission fined X €120 million—the first penalty issued under the DSA—arguing that its blue-check verification system was misleading because it did not meaningfully verify users. In response, X blocked the Commission from running advertisements on the platform.
Reacting to the visa ban, Breton wrote on X:
“To our American friends: censorship is not where you think it is.”
Also included in the visa restrictions is Clare Melford, head of the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI). U.S. Undersecretary of State Sarah B. Rogers accused GDI of using American taxpayer funds to promote censorship and blacklists against U.S. speech and media.
A GDI spokesperson told the BBC that the visa sanctions represent “an authoritarian attack on free expression and a blatant act of government censorship.”
“The Trump administration is once again using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor, and silence voices it disagrees with. These actions are immoral, unlawful, and un-American,” the statement said.
The ban also applies to Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Rogers labeled Ahmed a “key collaborator” in what she described as efforts by the Biden administration to weaponize government against American citizens.
Additionally, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German NGO HateAid were targeted. The State Department alleged the organization assisted in enforcing the DSA.
In a statement to the BBC, HateAid’s executive directors called the decision “an act of repression by a government increasingly disregarding the rule of law and attempting to silence its critics.”
Rubio concluded that visa restrictions are being imposed on what he described as “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex,” who will generally be barred from entering the United States.
“President Trump’s ‘America First’ foreign policy rejects violations of U.S. sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception,” Rubio added.
