Washington accused of ‘coercion and intimidation’ after five Europeans behind campaign to regulate US tech giants targeted
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Union have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation”, after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech giants.
The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.
The move also targeted Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.
Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
No matter how hard you suck Putin’s dick:
EU countries should ban all fascist parties that are parroting Putin’s talking points. They’re agents of foreign influence working on behalf of a hostile power.