The US State Department said on Tuesday it would deny a visa to the French former EU commissioner Thierry Breton, plus four others, accusing them of "coercion" over European regulation of social media platforms. "These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states - in each case targeting American speakers and American companies," the department said in a statement announcing the sanctions.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans who include former European Commissioner Thierry Breton have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose. These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states in each case targeting American speakers and American companies, Rubio said in an announcement.
The European Commission issued its decision following an investigation it opened two years ago into X under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, also known as the DSA.It's the first time that the EU has issued a so-called non-compliance decision since rolling out the DSA. The sweeping rulebook requires platforms to take more responsibility for protecting European users and cleaning up harmful or illegal content and products on their sites, under threat of hefty fines.
Elon Musk's social media company X was fined 120 million euros ($140 million) by EU tech regulators Friday for breaching EU online content rules, the first sanction under landmark legislation that will likely draw the ire of the US government. EU regulators said X's DSA violations included the deceptive design of its blue checkmark for verified accounts, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository and its failure to provide researchers access to public data.