By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. will impose visa bans on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, and he suggested the new policy could target officials regulating U.S. tech companies.
Rubio did not name any specific instances of censorship. But U.S. tech companies and the Trump administration have challenged U.S. allies in Europe, alleging censorship of social media platforms, but restricting officials from visiting the U.S. appeared to be an escalation by Washington.
Rubio said in a statement that a new visa restriction policy would apply to foreign nationals responsible for censorship of protected expression in the U.S. He said it was unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants for social media posts made on U.S. soil.
“It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,” Rubio said.
Some foreign officials have taken “flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so,” Rubio said.
U.S. social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said an EU content moderation law, the Digital Services Act, amounts to censorship of their platforms. The Trump-appointed chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in March warned the EU Digital Services Act excessively restricts freedom of expression.
EU officials have defended the law, which is meant to make the online environment safer and fairer by compelling tech giants to do more to tackle illegal content including hate speech and child sexual abuse material.
‘SHARED VALUES’
In a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio added, “Whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, the days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine the rights of Americans are over.”
Rubio did not name specific countries or individuals that would be targeted. Brazil has clashed with the platform X, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, over compliance with orders to take down accounts accused of spreading misinformation. The Trump administration has repeatedly called out European nations for supposed censorship of online content.
Vice President JD Vance denounced content moderation while in Paris in February, calling it “authoritarian censorship.”
In April, Rubio shut down a State Department office that had sought to counter foreign disinformation, accusing it of censorship and wasting U.S. taxpayer money.
Announcing that move, he said freedom of expression was vital to U.S. ties with Western European nations, and warned that those who threaten free speech “are attacking one of the pillars of our shared interest, our shared culture, our shared values.”
Free speech issues would be raised in diplomacy with the EU and had been raised separately with Britain’s prime minister, Rubio added.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Brendan O’Brien and Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Mark Porter and David Gregorio)
