EU warns of motion after US bars 5 Europeans accused of censorship

By LORNE COOK, Related Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s govt on Wednesday warned that it might take motion towards any “unjustified measures” after the U.S. State Division barred 5 Europeans it accuses of pressuring U.S. expertise corporations to censor or suppress American viewpoints.

The Europeans had been characterised by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “weaponized” nongovernmental organizations. They embody the previous EU commissioner answerable for supervising social media guidelines, Thierry Breton.

Breton, a businessman and former French finance minister, clashed final yr on social media with tech billionaire Elon Musk over broadcasting a web based interview with Donald Trump within the months main as much as the U.S. election.

The European Fee, the EU’s highly effective govt department and which supervises tech regulation in Europe, stated that it “strongly condemns the U.S. resolution to impose journey restrictions” and that it has requested clarification in regards to the transfer. French President Emmanuel Macron additionally condemned it.

“If wanted, we’ll reply swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy towards unjustified measures,” the fee stated in an announcement, with out elaborating.

Rubio wrote in an X publish on Tuesday that “for much too lengthy, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose.”

“The Trump Administration will not tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship,” he posted.

The European Fee countered that “the EU is an open, rules-based single market, with the sovereign proper to control financial exercise according to our democratic values and worldwide commitments.”

“Our digital guidelines guarantee a protected, honest, and degree enjoying discipline for all firms, utilized pretty and with out discrimination,” it stated.

Macron stated that the visa restrictions “quantity to intimidation and coercion geared toward undermining European digital sovereignty,” he posted on X.

Macron stated that the EU’s digital guidelines had been adopted by “a democratic and sovereign course of” involving all member international locations and the European Parliament. He stated that the foundations “guarantee honest competitors amongst platforms, with out focusing on any third nation.”

He underlined that “the foundations governing the European Union’s digital house will not be meant to be decided outdoors Europe.”

Breton and the group of Europeans fell afoul of a new visa coverage introduced in Might to limit the entry of foreigners deemed answerable for censorship of protected speech in america.

The 4 others are: Imran Ahmed, chief govt of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German group; and Clare Melford, who runs the International Disinformation Index.

Rubio stated the 5 had superior overseas authorities censorship campaigns towards Individuals and U.S. firms, which he stated created “doubtlessly critical opposed overseas coverage penalties” for america.

The motion to bar them from the U.S. is a part of a Trump administration marketing campaign towards overseas affect over on-line speech, utilizing immigration legislation quite than platform rules or penalties.

In a publish on X on Tuesday, Sarah Rogers, the U.S. below secretary of state for public diplomacy, known as Breton the “mastermind” behind the EU’s Digital Companies Act, which imposes a set of strict necessities designed to maintain web customers protected on-line. This consists of flagging dangerous or unlawful content material like hate speech.

Breton responded on X by noting that every one 27 EU member international locations voted for the Digital Companies Act in 2022. “To our American associates: ‘Censorship isn’t the place you assume it’s,’” he wrote.

Angela Charlton contributed to this report from Paris.