EU, France criticize US visa ban targeting former EU commissioner, activists

The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa bans on a former European Union commissioner and anti-killing campaigners who it says were involved in the hacking of American social media, the latest step in a campaign aimed at European rules that US officials say are overstepping legal regulations.

Trump officials have instructed US diplomats to create a countermeasure to the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to combat hate speech, falsification and falsification, but which Washington says restricts free speech and imposes costs on US technology companies.

The visa ban comes after the National Security Strategy this month said European leaders were cracking down on free speech and cracking down on opposition to immigration policies they said risked the “erasure of civilisation” on the continent.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the five people targeted by the visa ban “led an organized effort to force American platforms to process, monetize and suppress American views they oppose.”

“These strong activists and armed NGOs have advanced in reducing foreign control – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Rubio said in a statement.

Rubio did not name those who were targeted, but Under Secretary of Public Relations Sarah Rogers identified them in the X, accusing the people of “encouraging censorship of American speech.”

The most prominent target was French business magnate Thierry Breton, who served as European commissioner for the internal market from 2019-2024. Rogers called Breton the “mastermind” of the DSA and said he once threatened President Donald Trump’s partner, X owner Elon Musk, before Musk’s interview with Trump. Reuters could not immediately reach Breton for comment.

Reuters reported in August that US officials were considering sanctions against officials responsible for DSA.

The French president condemned the decision

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday condemned the decision to ban people.

“France condemns the visa ban measures taken by the United States against Thierry Breton and four other European figures. These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining Europe’s digital sovereignty,” Macron said on social media X.

“Together with the European Commission and our European partners, we will continue to protect our digital sovereignty and our regulatory independence,” he added.

The European Commission has similarly condemned the move, a Commission spokesperson said on Wednesday, adding that the EU has asked the US authorities for clarification.

“If necessary, we will respond quickly and firmly to protect our independence from unfair means,” he said.

The Global Disinformation Index calls it ‘misinformation’

The visa ban also hit Imran Ahmed, the British head of the US-based Center for Combating Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit organization HateAid; and Clare Melford, founder of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), said Rogers.

Hodenberg and Ballon said in a statement that the visa ban is an attempt to prevent compliance with European law for American organizations operating in Europe. “We will not be intimidated by a government that uses allegations that it is being investigated to silence those who stand for human rights and freedom of expression,” they said.

A GDI spokesman called the U.S. action “immoral, illegal and un-American” and “a massive attack on freedom of expression and an outrageous act of government surveillance.”

Rogers said Melford misrepresented online comments as hate speech or misinformation and used American taxpayers’ money to “promote the investigation and blacklisting of American speech and media.”

The Center for Counting Digital Hate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Melford, a former management consultant and TV executive, said in a video posted online in 2024 that he founded GDI “to try to break the business model of harmful online content” by revising online news websites to allow advertisers “to choose whether they want to fund content that is divisive and divisive and harmful, or whether they want to return their advertising to quality journalism.”