European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over censorship escalates
By The Guardian, December 25, 2025European leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation” after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at the heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.
The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.
The other individuals targeted were Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.
Justifying the visa bans, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
Germany, Spain, the UK and a chorus of EU officials joined the French president in condemning the move, with Brussels signalling it could “respond swiftly and decisively” against the “unjustified measures”.
The DSA is seen by Washington as a form of censorship, while European leaders say the regulations are necessary to control hate speech, but the row threatens to become part of a far wider existing cultural and political conflict between Donald Trump’s administration and Europe. Artificial intelligence and digital technologies were always likely to become a major theatre of confrontation between the US and Europe, as these technologies become ever more central to wielding power.
Macron condemned the visa ban in furious terms.
“These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,” he wrote, also on X. “
The European Union’s digital regulations were adopted following a democratic and sovereign process by the European Parliament and the Council. They apply within Europe to ensure fair competition among platforms, without targeting any third country, and to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online.
The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe.
He later added he had spoken to Breton, who is French, and had thanked him for his work. “We will not give up, and we will protect Europe’s independence and the freedom of Europeans,” Macron said.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “The peoples of Europe are free and sovereign and cannot let the rules governing their digital space be imposed by others upon them.”
Breton, a former French finance minister and the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019 to 2024, said: “Is McCarthy’s witch-hunt back?
“As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament – our democratically elected body – and all 27 member states unanimously voted for the DSA. To our American friends: censorship isn’t where you think it is.”
The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Freedom of speech is the foundation of our strong and vibrant European democracy. We are proud of it. We will protect it.” A commission spokesperson added: “If needed, we will respond swiftly and decisively to defend our regulatory autonomy against unjustified measures.”