President Donald Trump’s administration has banned five Europeans from entering the U.S. for what it has described as “egregious” censorship of “American viewpoints.”
Trump, 79, backed the move by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, as part of a new visa policy targeting foreign figures the White House says “coerce American platforms” to suppress free speech.
The five individuals who have been blacklisted—several of whom have been critical of Trump and his allies—are Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner for Internal Market; Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index (GDI); and HateAid leaders Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg.
Rubio said in a statement that the five “radical activists” had “led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”
“President Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception,” he said.
He added on X: “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship. We stand ready and willing to expand this list if others do not reverse course.”
The move comes after the European Commission fined Elon Musk’s X €120 million ($140 million) on Dec. 5 under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The sweeping law tightens oversight of how major platforms police content.
But the penalty was framed as an assault on U.S. speech by Trump allies, who had hinted that there could be repercussions.
The bans have triggered an escalating diplomatic row, with European leaders warning of retaliation and arguing their rules target illegal content and platform accountability, not American political views.
French President Emmanuel Macron said, “These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty. The European Union’s digital regulations were adopted following a democratic and sovereign process by the European Parliament and the Council.”
The European Commission said it had “requested clarifications” from the U.S. government and would “respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures.”
Breton, a former top tech regulator whom the State Department has billed as the “mastermind” behind the DSA, publicly tangled with Musk ahead of the billionaire’s X livestream interview with Trump in 2024.
He has cast the ban as a throwback scare tactic, asking: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”
Ahmed, a former adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has been one of Musk’s loudest critics. In a September 2024 interview, he said Musk “treats the platform like his own misinformation megaphone.”
The organizations have also hit back. In a statement to the Daily Beast, a spokesperson for Melford’s Global Disinformation Index called the sanctions “immoral, unlawful, and un-American,” adding: “It is deeply ironic decrying ‘speech suppression’ while using state power to silence critics engaging in protected speech.”
Ballon and von Hodenberg told the Daily Beast the ban was an “act of repression by a government that is increasingly disregarding the rule of law and trying to silence its critics by any means necessary,” adding: “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.”
Practical enforcement is a looming question, as many travelers enter the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program. However, AP reported that those individuals could still be flagged through Homeland Security systems.
Rubio’s announcement comes days after his State Department ordered nearly 30 career ambassadors and other senior diplomats to end their postings and return to Washington in January as the administration moves to install envoys it views as fully aligned with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the State Department, and the five barred individuals for comment.
