Visa ban for European critics of online harm is first shot in US free speech war

For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech.The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Both pieces of legislation require social media firms to protect users or face the threat of sizeable fines. Indeed, Elon Musk’s X has been fined €120m (£105m) this month for breaching the DSA.These acts are prime examples of what US Republicans see as an anti-free speech culture on the other side of the Atlantic.Thierry Breton is thought to have been a leading figure in bringing through the EU’s Digital Services Act. Photograph: NurPhoto/GettyOfcom, the UK’s communications regulator charged with overseeing the OSA, has not been affected by the visa bans announced on Christmas Eve, but there is an implicit threat in the air. One of those targeted by the move is the former European industry commissioner Thierry Breton, an architect of the DSA. The message is clear: watch out regulators.Trump allies have also targeted Imran Ahmed’s Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US-UK organisation which campaigns against online hate speech. Ahmed was one of the people who received a visa ban on Wednesday. CCDH was the target of an Elon Musk lawsuit in 2023 but the claim was thrown out by a judge last year who said the legal challenge, which focused on allegations that CCDH accessed data on X illegally, was in fact “about punishing the defendants for their speech”. In a post on X, Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, described CCDH as a “truly evil organization that just wants to destroy the first amendment under the guise of doing good!”The UK’s OSA remains a subject of White House ire. JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said free speech in the UK is “in retreat”. In July, Jim Jordan, a Republican congressman who has criticised the act, led a delegation of US politicians to discuss the legislation with the Labour government and Ofcom.Ofcom is aware it could be in the crosshairs. In May, the state department announced it will block entry to the US to “foreign nationals who censor Americans”. The watchdog has said it is seeking “clarity” on the planned visa restrictions.The EU and UK have only just got going on implementing their acts and, as the visa ban for Breton shows, opposition is building. In October, Ofcom fined the online forum 4chan £20,000 for breaching the act by failing to respond to a request for a risk assessment. Emboldened by domestic opposition to the OSA, 4chan is suing Ofcom in the US, claiming its enforcement of the OSA violates Americans’ right to freedom of speech.The UK government has said it won’t back down on the OSA, while the X fine signals the EU is determined to enforce its own legislation. There is also an effective non-profit ecosystem – in Europe and the US – campaigning for online safety. These visa bans are just the latest shot in what will be a long-running battle under the Trump administration.