European Speech Suppression

Award

Disgraciad of the Year (2025)

Core Conflict

European anti-disinformation efforts vs. American First Amendment protections

U.S. Response

Visa restrictions and entry bans for key officials

Targeted Individuals

Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, Josephine Ballon, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, and Clare Melford

Primary Regulatory Framework

Digital Services Act (DSA)

2008-11-28

2025-05-01

2025-12-20

The Trump administration has barred five Europeans from entering the U.S., accusing them of pressuring American tech companies to censor or suppress American speech online. The individuals–Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, Josephine Ballon, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, and Clare Melford—are all leading figures in European efforts to regulate harmful or illegal content on social media platforms. [...] The Trump administration has banned five European figures from entering the U.S., accusing them of pressuring American tech companies to censor online speech. The individuals—including former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton—are linked to Europe’s Digital Services Act and anti-disinformation efforts. The move has triggered diplomatic backlash, with European leaders condemning the sanctions as intimidation [...] Fortune 500 PoliticsEurope Europe # Trump administration bars 5 prominent Europeans from the U.S., accusing them of pressuring tech firms to ‘censor’ American speech By Beatrice Nolan Beatrice Nolan Tech Reporter December 24, 2025, 7:29 AM ET The move targets architects of the EU's Digital Services Act and anti-disinformation advocates.Getty images

NBC News has reached out to the State Department for comment on the reactions, and contacted the Center for Countering Digital Hate for a response. The sanctions are a new high watermark for the Trump administration’s war on what it calls European censorship. The White House has portrayed its actions as necessary to break the decadeslong liberal bias held by media and government elites, while for critics, it is an attempt to silence dissent and promote illiberal, often hate, speech online. [...] It marks a dramatic escalation of Washington’s war on what it sees as censorship from across the Atlantic. Europe has previously seen Vice President JD Vance berate its leaders over perceived failures on free speech. For many on the continent and elsewhere, however, the move comes as an amplification of the Trump administration’s own crackdown on viewpoints that don’t align with its own. [...] It added: “Only the bullies and petty fascists of the Trump administration could miss the irony of decrying “speech suppression” while using state power to silence critics engaging in protected speech.” The French Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, alleged double standards between how the U.S. was treating its old European allies and its historical adversaries in Russia as it negotiates for peace in Ukraine.

All western european countries have hate-speech laws. In 2008, the eu adopted a framework decision on “Combating Racism and Xenophobia” that obliged all member states to criminalize certain forms of hate speech. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Supreme Court of the United States has gradually increased and consolidated the protection of hate speech under the First Amendment. The European concept of freedom of expression thus prohibits certain content and viewpoints, whereas, with certain [...] When the current wording of Article 20 was put to a vote in the Third Committee of the General Assembly, it was adopted with 52 votes in favor, nineteen against, and twelve abstentions. Those in favor were primarily the communist states of Eastern Europe, as well as non-Western countries with very questionable human rights records such as Saudi Arabia, Haiti, Sudan, and Thailand. The nineteen countries that voted against included almost all Western liberal democracies — such as the United [...] result, the 1970s saw a dramatic increase in new or expanded hate-speech laws in Europe. In fact, European states that only fifty years ago found hate-speech laws dangerous and arbitrary have today become active proponents of such laws, albeit on different grounds and for nobler purposes than the nondemocratic states they opposed during the Cold War. Hate-speech laws may thus be one of the last enduring legacies of European communism, and, as we shall see, this legacy is being exploited by a

BRUSSELS -- The European Union's executive on Wednesday warned that it would take action against any “unjustified measures” after the U.S. State Department barred five Europeans it accuses of pressuring U.S. technology firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints. [...] The action to bar them from the U.S. is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or penalties. [...] ## Rob Reiner's son arrested for murder in stabbing death of famed director, wife Dec 15, 6:39 PM He underlined that “the rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe.” Breton and the group of Europeans fell afoul of a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States.