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THE the European Union The executive warned on Wednesday that it would take action against any “unwarranted measures” after the US State Department excluded five Europeans it accused of pressuring US technology companies to censor or suppress US views.
Europeans were characterized by the American Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “militarized” non-governmental organizations. Among them, the former European commissioner responsible for overseeing social media rules, Thierry Breton.
Breton, a businessman and former French finance minister, clashed on social media last year with tech billionaire Elon Musk over the broadcast of an online interview with Donald Trump in the months before the US election.
The European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive branch that oversees technology regulation in Europe, said it “strongly condemns the US decision to impose travel restrictions” and requested clarification on the move. French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned it.
“If necessary, we will respond quickly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures,” the commission said in a statement, without elaborating.
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Rubio wrote in an article on Tuesday that “for too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to force American platforms to punish American views they oppose.”
“The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these blatant acts of extraterritorial censorship,” he said.
The European Commission responded that “the EU is an open, rules-based single market with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments.”
“Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair and level playing field for all businesses, applied fairly and without discrimination,” it says.
Macron said the visa restrictions “constitute intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,” he posted on X.
Macron said the EU’s digital rules were adopted through “a democratic and sovereign process” involving all member countries and the European Parliament. He said the rules “ensure fair competition between platforms, without targeting any third countries”.
He stressed that “the rules governing the digital space of the European Union are not intended to be determined outside of Europe”.
Breton and the Europeans group ran up against a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censoring protected speech in the United States.
The other four are: Imran Ahmed, executive director of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Joséphine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization; and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index.
Rubio said the five men led foreign government censorship campaigns against Americans and American businesses, which he said created “potentially serious negative foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
The action to bar them from the United States is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions.
In an article published Tuesday on This includes reporting harmful or illegal content such as hate speech.
Breton responded on
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