December 24, 2025 | 05:25 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The administration of United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, imposed a visa ban on a former European Union commissioner and anti-disinformation activist whom Washington accuses of pressuring U.S. social media platforms to censor content. As reported by CNA, this is Washington's latest move to target European regulations that U.S. officials claim go beyond legitimate rules.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the five individuals targeted in the visa ban "have led organized efforts that force American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they disagree with."
"These radical activists and weaponised NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states - in each case targeting American speakers and American companies," Rubio said in a statement.
"The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship," Rubio added, as quoted by France24.
Five Targets
Although Rubio did not mention the names of the individuals targeted, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers identified them on X. She accused these individuals of "triggering censorship against American speech."
The most notable target is Thierry Breton, the former French business executive who served as the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market from 2019 to 2024.
Rogers referred to Breton as the "mastermind" behind the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) and stated that Breton had threatened Trump's ally and X owner, Elon Musk, before Musk's interview with Trump.
The visa ban also affects Imran Ahmed, the UK CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) based in the U.S.; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon from the German non-profit organization HateAid; and Clare Melford, one of the founders of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), Rogers said.
Rogers stated that Melford mistakenly labeled online comments as hate speech or disinformation and used U.S. taxpayer money to "promote censorship and boycotts against American free speech and press."
Melford, a former management consultant and TV executive, said in a video uploaded online in 2024 that she helped establish GDI "to try to break the dangerous online content business model."
This was done by reviewing online news websites to allow advertisers to "choose whether or not they want to fund content that is polarizing and divisive and harmful, or whether they want to steer their advertising back towards more quality journalism."
Meanwhile, Hodenberg and Ballon stated in a declaration that the visa ban is an attempt to hinder European enforcement against U.S. companies operating in Europe.
"We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression," they said.
A GDI spokesperson called the U.S. action "unethical, unlawful, and contrary to American values" and "an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship."
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
France Condemns
The French government on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, condemned the visa ban imposed by the Trump administration on Thierry Breton.
"France strongly condemns the visa restriction imposed by the United States on Thierry Breton, former minister and European Commissioner, and four other European figures," wrote French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in X as reported by Arab News.
Former French finance minister and European Commissioner for the Internal Market from 2019 to 2024, Breton is the most prominent individual targeted by this ban.
"The Digital Services Act (DSA) was democratically adopted in Europe to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. It has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way affects the United States," Barrot wrote in X.
Breton himself also condemned the visa ban on him.
"Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back? As a reminder: 90 percent of the European Parliament — our democratically elected body — and all 27 Member States unanimously voted the DSA. To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is’," Breton wrote in X.
In August, U.S. officials stated they would consider sanctions against officials responsible for the DSA.
This visa ban was imposed after the administration's National Security Strategy earlier this month claimed that European leaders censor free speech and suppress opposition to immigration policies that they see as risking the "erasure of civilization" on the continent.
Trump officials have instructed U.S. diplomats to oppose the DSA. The regulation aims to combat hate speech, misinformation, and disinformation, but according to Washington, it hinders free speech and burdens U.S. technology companies.
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