Eurocrats Melt Down Over Trump Barring Censorship Police From US

European officials and left-wing advocates erupted Wednesday after the Trump administration moved to bar five prominent European figures accused of promoting online censorship from entering the U.S.

The State Department announced Tuesday that the five individuals fall under a visa restriction policy unveiled in May targeting foreign nationals who censor Americans. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration is responding to pressure from European regulators and activist groups seeking to force U.S.-based technology companies to suppress protected speech.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints,” Rubio said. “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

Those barred include former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton; Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH); Clare Melford, head of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI); and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, co-leaders of the Germany-based group HateAid.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers identified the five individuals, writing on X, “If you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.”

The move comes amid an escalating clash between Washington and Brussels over the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which gives European regulators sweeping authority over content moderation on large digital platforms. In early December, EU regulators fined X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, roughly $140 million for alleged violations of the law.

The fine drew fierce criticism from members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, who said the EU should be “supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage.”

The administration’s new National Security Strategy similarly accused the EU of suppressing free speech and political opposition.

Rogers described Breton as a “mastermind” behind the DSA, noting that in August of 2024, while serving as European Commissioner for Internal Markets and Digital Services, he invoked the law in a letter threatening Musk ahead of a livestream interview with President Donald Trump.

Rogers also pointed to documented instances in which the GDI used U.S. taxpayer funds “to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press.”

The CCDH, led by Ahmed, is responsible for the “Disinformation Dozen” report, which called for platforms to deplatform twelve American “anti-vaxxers,” including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In 2021, CCDH also released a report titled “The Toxic Ten” demanding Facebook and Google demonetize conservative sites such as The Daily Wire, Breitbart, Newsmax, The Washington Times, and Media Research Center for spreading so-called climate “misinformation.”

European leaders quickly condemned the visa restrictions.

The European Commission warned that it would “respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures,” while insisting that freedom of expression is a “fundamental right in Europe and a shared core value” with the U.S.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also denounced the move, arguing on X that the DSA was “democratically adopted in Europe” and has “absolutely no extraterritorial reach” in the U.S.

Breton himself responded to the visa restrictions on X, asking, “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”

“To our American friends: ‘Censorship is not where you think it is,’” the former EU commissioner added.

HateAid co-leaders Ballon and von Hodenberg similarly denounced the sanctions as an “act of repression by a government that is increasingly disregarding the rule of law,” claiming they were being targeted for defending “human rights and freedom of expression,” according to The Washington Post. They said they would not be “intimidated” by what they characterized as an effort to silence critics.