BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive warned Wednesday that the European Commission would take action against any “unreasonable measures” after the U.S. State Department banned entry to five Europeans whom the bloc accused of pressuring U.S. technology companies to censor or suppress American views.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Europeans as “radical” activists and “weaponized” NGOs. Among them is Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner responsible for overseeing social media rules.
Breton, a businessman and former French finance minister, clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk on social media last year over the broadcast of an online interview with Donald Trump months before the US election.
The European Commission, the bloc’s most powerful administrative agency that oversees technology regulation in Europe, said it “strongly condemns the U.S. decision to impose travel restrictions” and asked for clarification on the move. French President Macron also condemned this.
“We will react quickly and decisively, if necessary, to defend our regulatory autonomy against unreasonable measures,” the commission said in a statement, without elaborating.
Rubio wrote in an
“The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship,” he posted.
The European Commission countered that “the EU is an open, rules-based single market with the sovereign right to regulate economic activity in line with our democratic values and international commitments.”
“Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair and level playing field for all companies and are applied fairly and without discrimination,” it said.
Macron posted on X that the visa restrictions “amount to intimidation and coercion and are aimed at undermining Europe’s digital sovereignty.”
Macron said the EU’s digital rules were adopted through a “democratic and sovereign process” involving all member states and the European Parliament. He said the rules “ensure fair competition between platforms and do not target any third country”.
He stressed that “the rules governing the EU’s digital space are not meant to be determined by regions outside Europe.”
Breton and the Europeans clashed with new visa policies announced in May that restrict entry to foreigners deemed responsible for protected speech in the United States.
The other four are: Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center to Combat Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of the German organization HateAid; and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index.
Rubio said the five individuals promoted foreign government censorship campaigns against Americans and American companies, which he said had “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.
The move to bar them from entering the United States is part of the Trump administration’s campaign to counter foreign influence on online speech, using immigration laws rather than platform regulations or penalties.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers called Breton the “mastermind” behind the European Union’s Digital Services Act in a post on This includes flagging harmful or illegal content such as hate speech.
Breton responded on X that all 27 EU member states voted in support of the Digital Services Act in 2022. “To our American friends: ‘Censorship is not what you think it is,'” he wrote.
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Angela Charlton contributed to this report from Paris.
