The United States has banned five Europeans who it says pressured tech companies to censor American views online

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department announced Tuesday that it has banned the entry of five Europeans it accuses of leading efforts to pressure American technology companies to censor or suppress American views.

The Europeans, described by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “militant” NGOs, disobeyed a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censoring protected expression in the United States.

“For too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to force US platforms to punish US views they oppose,” Rubio wrote on X. “The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”

The five Europeans were identified by Sarah Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, in a series of social media posts. They include leaders of organizations tackling digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over the broadcast of an online interview with Donald Trump.

Rubio’s statement said they strengthened foreign government surveillance campaigns against Americans and American companies, which he said created “potentially serious negative foreign policy consequences” for the United States.

The action to bar them from entering the United States is part of the Trump administration’s campaign against foreign influence on online expression, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions.

The five Europeans mentioned by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of the German organization HateAid; Claire Milford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index; and former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs.

In her post on the This includes reporting harmful or illegal content, such as hate speech.

She pointed to Britton’s warning to Musk about the possibility of “amplifying harmful content” by broadcasting his live interview with Trump in August 2024 when he was running for president.

On Tuesday, Breton responded to X by pointing out that all 27 EU members voted in favor of the Digital Services Act in 2022. “To our American friends: censorship is not where you think it is,” he wrote.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France condemns the visa restrictions imposed on Breton and the four others. Also in his post on X, he said the DSA was adopted to ensure that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online.” He said that it “has absolutely no extraterritorial extension and is of no interest to the United States in any way.”

A statement from Pallone and von Hodenberg, co-CEOs of HateAid, called the move “an act of repression by a government that increasingly ignores the rule of law and attempts to silence its critics by any means necessary.”

Most Europeans are covered by the Visa Waiver Program, meaning they do not necessarily need visas to enter the country. However, they must complete an online application before their arrival under a system run by the Department of Homeland Security, so it is possible that at least some of those five people have been reported to the Department of Homeland Security, said a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been publicly disclosed.

Other visa-restricting policies were announced this year, along with bans targeting foreign visitors from some countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Palestinian Authority. Visitors from some countries may be required to provide a financial bond when applying for a visa.

Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.