Europe (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc will defend freedom of expression after the US imposed travel bans on five Europeans.
Antonio Costa, the chairman of the European Council, condemned the measures as” inferior between abettors , mates, and friends..” He emphasized in a post on X that the EU is loyal in upholding its sovereignty in executing its own laws, fair digital regulations, and freedom of expression.
“Freedom of speech is the foundation of a strong European democracy. We are proud of it. We will protect it,”
von der Leyen wrote on X, responding to the US measures.
The US decision, which targets five Europeans accused by Washington of blocking online platforms, was sharply denounced by Germany and France under President Emmanuel Macron. In addition to Breton, a major contributor to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which mandates that platforms deal with objectionable content, four NGO leaders who oppose or record hate speech online were also subject to sanctions.
Imran Ahmed, the founder of the US-UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, Claire Melford, the founder of the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, co-chief executives of Germany’s HateAid, are among those targeted.
The DSA was enacted through democratic processes and only applies within the European Union, according to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who called the measures “unacceptable.” He stated on X that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online” and that any disputes should be settled through discussion.
HateAid does not suppress beliefs, according to Germany’s justice minister, but it does assist victims of unlawful online hate speech. “Anyone who calls this censorship is misinterpreting our constitutional system,” she said, stressing that the rules governing the digital space in Germany and Europe “are not decided in Washington.”
Breton denounced the penalties as a” witch quest.” He constantly disacred with billionaire Elon Musk, whose platform X was later fined €120 million by Brussels for translucency contraventions under EU regulations, during his term as manager from 2019 to 2024.
The US move was called an” authoritarian attack on freedom of speech and a brutal act of government suppression” by the Global Disinformation Index, which also indicted President Donald Trump’s administration of trying to blackjack and stifle voices that it disagrees with. It declared the penalties to be” immoral, illegal, and un-American.”
The five people and their organizations were accused by the US government, which backed the actions, of being “radical” activists who wanted to force American platforms to repress “American views.”
How will the EU respond diplomatically to the US visa bans?
The European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, plans a political response to the U.S. visa bans on five Europeans including Thierry Breton, fastening on formal requests for explanation and implicit” nippy and decisive” countermeasures to defend nonsupervisory autonomy.
Brussels has explosively condemned the bans as unjustified hindrance, seeking explanations from Washington via high- position demarches while coordinating with France and Germany, whose leaders like Macron labeled them” intimidation.”
Future conduct may include complementary visa restrictions on U.S. officers, WTO complaints over discriminative treatment, or boosted DSA enforcement on American tech enterprises, though full trade retribution remains doubtful amid profitable interdependence.
