Report from Reuters
In Brief – Senior officials of the European Union, France and Germany condemned US visa bans imposed on five Europeans, including French former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, that have pressed large online platforms to counter what they call online hate and disinformation, and defended Europe’s right to legislate on how foreign companies operate locally. Breton, a chief architect of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and its lead enforcer when it came into force in 2023, consistently challenged Elon Musk over how he managed X including over a one-on-one interview in with then-candidate Donald Trump in August 2024, an intervention that backfired. The visa bans also target leaders of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Global Disinformation Index, and the German non-profit HateAid.
Context – While US officials criticized many EU tech policies in 2025, including “gatekeeper” regulation, digital services taxes, and AI regulation, charges of anti-conservative censorship have consistently been the top Trump Administration priority. That’s not driven by US industry. Instead, it reflects the fact that the only tech issue that unites US conservatives is the belief that giant tech platforms have stifled conservative viewpoints. Many of the leading conservative populists in the US, otherwise wary of Big Tech and AI, have built alliances in Europe and see the EU and many member states as cultural and policy ecosystems akin to progressive strongholds in the US. The Europeans are not constrained by the First Amendment and have been more aggressive in using legislation and regulation to direct online content moderation than their US counterparts can. They have been cheered by and partnered with ideological allies in the US and are not backing down. The DSA investigations of X have been a flashpoint. The recent DSA decision on X’s blue checkmark policy and advertiser transparency resulted in full-throated censorship charges from US critics, and that’s not even the really political stuff. The Commission is still investigating X’s core content moderation practices and how its algorithms boost content relevant to elections.