The Washington administration has imposed visa restrictions on former European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, as well as on other individuals it believes are involved in attempts to censor Americans.
This was announced by the Deputy Secretary of State of the US Department of State Sarah Rogers.
„We have imposed sanctions on Thierry Breton, the mastermind behind the Digital Services Act“, Rogers said in X. The EU Digital Services Act came into force in August 2023. It significantly strengthened control over a number of platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, AliExpress, Amazon Store, AppStore, Booking.com and others.
As Rogers recalled, in August 2024, Breton announced that the European Commission has sent an official letter to American billionaire Elon Musk, warning him of its readiness to punish his social media X for insufficient action to remove “harmful content“ and for liability for disinformation. This happened before X aired an interview with Donald Trump, then a candidate for US president and now US leader.
Rogers specified that sanctions were also imposed on British political consultant Imran Ahmed, who heads CCDH, an organization that is allegedly dedicated to combating the spread of misinformation and hateful content online. Rogers called Ahmed “a key accomplice of the Biden administration“ in its attempts to use state resources against American citizens.
According to the Deputy Secretary of State, the sanctions list also includes Anna-Lena von Hoddenberg and Josephine Ballon, who run the German-based organization HateAid. According to Rogers, the organization “opposes conservative groups.” The restrictions will also apply to Claire Melford, head of the British organization GDI. According to Rogers, the organization, under the guise of identifying misinformation and hateful content online, has used American taxpayer funds to censor Americans.
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized in a written statement, the United States is denying access to “key figures” in the global censorship complex. Rubio said that “ideologues in Europe” are trying to “force American platforms to punish” American citizens for expressing certain views. “The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these blatant actions aimed at establishing extraterritorial censorship,” he added. The Secretary of State stressed that the United States is “prepared to expand this list if others do not change course“.