France, Germany, the European Union and the United Kingdom have sharply criticised a U.S. decision to impose travel bans on five Europeans accused by the Trump administration of pressuring technology companies to censor or suppress American views.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm that oversees digital regulation, said it was seeking clarification from the U.S. State Department, which announced the bans on Tuesday, and warned it could respond to any “unjustified measures.” The move has intensified transatlantic tensions over online speech and technology regulation.
The five individuals were described by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists linked to what he called “weaponized” nongovernmental organisations. Among them is Thierry Breton, the former European commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules.
Breton, a former French finance minister and businessman, publicly clashed last year with Elon Musk over the broadcasting of an online interview with Donald Trump ahead of the U.S. election. Rubio said on X that “for far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” adding that the Trump administration would no longer tolerate what it called “extraterritorial censorship.”
The European Commission pushed back, stressing that the EU is “an open, rules-based single market” with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with democratic values. It said EU digital rules ensure a safe and fair online environment and are applied without discrimination.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken with Breton and vowed to protect Europeans from external pressure. Macron underlined that EU digital legislation was adopted through a democratic process involving all member states and the European Parliament, and insisted that rules governing Europe’s digital space “are not meant to be determined outside Europe.”
The four other Europeans affected are Imran Ahmed, head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg of Germany’s HateAid; and Clare Melford, who leads the Global Disinformation Index. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the entry bans were “not acceptable” and that Berlin would seek talks with Washington to clarify differing interpretations of EU digital rules.
EU Council President António Costa also called the bans unacceptable between allies, saying the EU would stand firm in defending freedom of expression and regulatory sovereignty. The UK government said it supported laws aimed at keeping the internet free from the most harmful content, while acknowledging each country’s right to set its own visa policies.
The bans stem from a new U.S. visa policy announced in May targeting foreigners deemed responsible for censoring protected speech in the United States. Rubio said the five Europeans had promoted foreign censorship campaigns that could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” The measures mark a broader Trump administration effort to counter foreign influence over online speech using immigration law rather than direct regulation of technology platforms.
