He called it “unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil” and “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.”
The State Department’s homepage currently links to an article on its official Substack, where senior advisor for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Samuel Samson critiques the DSA as a tool to “silence dissonant voices through Orwellian content moderation.”
Though President Donald Trump has claimed to take actions to crack down on censorship domestically, some moves by his administration have threatened to limit speech within the U.S. Government websites and institutions that rely on government funding have scrubbed words associated with diversity to avoid his wrath, and the White House cut The Associated Press’ access to press briefings when the outlet declined to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
The Guardian reported: The United States has said it will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans’ social media posts, as Donald Trump’s administration wages a new battle over free expression.
Marco Rubio – the secretary of state who has controversially rescinded visas for activists who criticize Israel and ramped up screening of foreign students’ social media – said on Wednesday he was acting against “flagrant censorship actions” overseas against US tech firms.
Rubio said the US will begin to restrict visas to foreign nationals who are responsible for “censorship of protected expression in the United States.”
The administration of Trump – himself a prolific and often controversial social media user – has also sharply criticized Germany and Britain for restriction what the US allies’ governments term hate and abusive speech.
Politico reported: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday a new visa restriction policy targeting foreign officials who says are complicit in censoring what Americans say online.
“For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights.” Rubio wrote on X. “Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life — a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.”