New York: The Trump administration has taken the extraordinary step of barring five European “ideologues” from entering the United States, accusing them of coercing American tech companies into censoring certain viewpoints.
The move sparked intense backlash from European leaders and could yet be expanded to ensnare Australians, with the eSafety Commissioner previously mentioned in the same vein as some of the sanctioned individuals.
Those barred from the US include Thierry Breton, a former European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, who is described as the “mastermind” of Europe’s Digital Services Act, which is loathed by the Trump administration.
The ban also applies to Imran Ahmed, a British Labour strategist who is now chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, a group campaigning against disinformation online. Ahmed lives in Washington and faces immediate deportation, London’s Telegraph reported.
Clare Melford, a Briton who runs the Global Disinformation Index, was also targeted, accused of using State Department money to “exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press”. Two leaders of a German organisation, HateAid, were also banned. None are currently serving as EU or UK officials.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the five people “leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex”, and said the list could be expanded if others did not reverse course.
“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship,” he said.
Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers said the sanctions only applied to visas, and did not involve financial penalties under the Magnitsky Act, which targets foreigners who commit human rights abuses.
“But our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” she said.
The move sparked a backlash in Europe, which is considering retaliatory action. The European Commission said it strongly condemned the US decision, and that Europe had “the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments”.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the entry bans were “not acceptable” and defended the Digital Services Act, noting it was democratically adopted by the European Union and did not have extraterritorial effect.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he called Breton to thank him for his significant service. “We will stand firm against pressure and will protect Europeans,” he said.
Breton compared the US move to McCarthyism, the anti-communist witch hunts spearheaded by US senator Joe McCarthy after World War II, and suggested the US was being hypocritical.
“To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is’,” Breton wrote on X.
The Trump administration opposes what it sees as attempts by foreign governments to coerce tech companies – most of which are American – into censoring or otherwise restricting certain content, particularly that which is regarded as reflective of conservative viewpoints.
Rogers cited attempts to de-platform anti-vaccination activists or censor “hate speech”, when explaining the State Department’s reasons for the bans.
Australia has already been drawn into the administration’s crusade against perceived censorship. In May, the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor took aim at the eSafety Commissioner for ordering X to remove a post that criticised an Australia individual over transgender issues. The bureau’s statement also included criticism of Breton.
The eSafety Commissioner argued the post – by Canadian activist Chris Elston – deliberately misgendered the person, invalidated and mocked his gender identity, caused offence and constituted cyber-abuse. Elston later won an appeal at the Administrative Review Tribunal.
Last month, Republican congressman Jim Jordan – who chairs the House Judiciary Committee – asked eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to provide evidence to the committee, calling her a “noted zealot for global takedowns” and a direct threat to American speech.
Inman Grant has said she replied in writing and pointed out the agency abandoned global takedown orders, which Elon Musk’s X had challenged in court.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts encouraged the Trump administration to apply the same entry bans to Australians as it did to the Europeans. “Now do Australian politicians, please,” he posted on X.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via Twitter or email.
