Europeans critical of online hate speech blocked by US

TT

Published 23.46

 

Former EU Commissioner and French Finance Minister Thierry Breton is barred from entering the US after he tried to "censor" American tech companies, according to the US State Department. Photo: Virginia Mayo/AP/TT

The US State Department announced late on Tuesday that five Europeans, who are accused by the US of wanting to censor major tech companies, are not being granted entry into the country.

One of them is former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was also the head of French Telecom and French Finance Minister.

The five are being identified by the US as "radical activists" because they are said to have tried to influence American tech companies to censor or prevent the spread of American positions.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not name the five individuals, but wrote on X that “for too long, ideologies in Europe have led organized efforts to force American (social) platforms to punish American positions they disapprove of.”

The five individuals were later named by a senior official at the US State Department, Sara Rogers. On social media, she wrote that those singled out were Imram Ahmed, who heads a think tank that wants to prevent hate online; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg of the independent German organization Hateaid; Clare Melford, who heads the monitoring organization Global Disinformation Index; and former EU Commissioner Breton.

The explanation for the decision was also announced by Rubio on X:

“The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of censorship by extraterritorial countries (outside the US).”

Several of the individuals named work for organizations whose stated goal is to counter disinformation, hate, and threatening messages online.