Washington accused of ‘coercion and intimidation’ after five Europeans behind campaign to regulate US tech giants targeted
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Union have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation”, after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech giants.
The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, a 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 move also targeted Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Center 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.”
No matter how hard you suck Putin’s dick:
Raphaël Glucksmann, a French socialist MEP, said in a message to Rubio: “For far too long, Europe has been weak in implementing its own laws and defending its own interests. You have chosen to cosy up tyrants and confront democracies. The time has come for us to stand up. Kneel as much as you want in front of Putin, we are the free world now.
EU countries should ban all fascist parties that are parroting Putin’s talking points. They’re agents of foreign influence working on behalf of a hostile power.
“These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,” he wrote, also on X 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Just found this great quote in the article: Michel Duclos, a former senior French diplomat (…) said:
“Dmitriev celebrated in Miami, Breton denied US visa: Europe is becoming the new Russia for Washington. It brings to mind the 1920s – America favouring the former enemy [Germany) against its former allies – but worse.”
I’m ok with it if the EU wants to help fix this issue early; I don’t know that things will sort themselves out on their own in the next election, if we even have one.
