US bans former EU Commissioner and others over social media rules

"The Trump administration has issued travel bans that prohibit five European tech researchers, including one former EU Commissioner, from entering the United States. "For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship," said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio."

"That official is Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, who Sarah Rogers called the "mastermind" of the Digital Services Act. Rogers, the Under Secretary of State, said Breton threatened Elon Musk about ongoing formal proceedings for X's noncompliance with "illegal content" and "disinformation" under the DSA just before his meeting with President Trump. The administration has also banned Imran Ahmed from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), who apparently called for American anti-vaxxers to be deplatformed."

"HateAid flags hate speech online for the EU under DSA rules. As The New York Times notes, these travel bans emphasize the administration's close relationship with internet and tech companies, which would benefit from having DSA rules loosened or abolished. The Global Disinformation Index called the travel bans "an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship." Meanwhile, von Hodenberg and Ballon said the bans mark a new escalation."

The Trump administration imposed travel bans preventing five European tech researchers from entering the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused European ideologues of coercing American platforms to punish American viewpoints and framed the bans as a response to extraterritorial censorship. Thierry Breton, former EU Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, was named and accused of pressuring X over DSA compliance. Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index, and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of HateAid were banned. Critics called the measures an authoritarian attack on free speech and an escalation in US-European tensions over platform regulation.

Read at Engadget