The United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday, December 23, that the U.S. will refuse entry to foreign nationals seeking to censor American speech. Rubio emphasized on X platform that European ideological advocates have long been pressuring American platforms to punish viewpoints that do not align with their own. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate this kind of cross-border censorship behavior.
In a press release from the State Department, Rubio stated that the initial actions would target five individuals. These individuals had organized activities that coerced American businesses and platforms to censor and suppress American speech and views, or to demonetize them.
Rubio stated that these radicals and politically weaponized NGOs have been promoting censorship and suppression actions of foreign governments, with each case directly targeting American voices and companies. He further added that allowing these individuals entry, stay, or activity in the U.S. could have serious negative consequences on U.S. foreign policy.
This means that individuals targeted by these State Department actions will be primarily prohibited from entering the United States.
Rubio mentioned that this action also empowers the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) legally. If the named foreign individuals currently reside in the U.S., relevant authorities can immediately initiate deportation proceedings against them.
Although Rubio did not disclose the specific names on the first wave of sanctions list, he described them as agents of the “Global Censorship-Industrial Complex.”
“Epoch Times” has reached out to the U.S. State Department for detailed information on the sanctioned individuals but has not received a response as of the time of publication.
In fact, Rubio had announced a new policy as early as May of this year, aimed at restricting foreign nationals attempting to undermine American freedom of speech from obtaining visas. He stated, “The era of passively tolerating those who seek to undermine the rights of American citizens, whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere, is over.”
Currently, several leading U.S. technology companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and X, are facing strict regulation under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA requires major tech platforms to be accountable for their content moderation decisions, including specific steps to remove what is considered hate speech or misleading information.
On December 5, the European Commission issued the first fine since the implementation of the Digital Services Act, demanding that X platform pay 120 million euros (around 141 million U.S. dollars). The Commission found the platform’s “blue checkmark” account verification system to be misleading, as users could obtain the badge by simply paying for it without proper identity verification.
Furthermore, the EU Commission also criticized the social platform for lacking transparency in its advertising operations and hindering researchers from collecting platform data.
Regarding the hefty fine imposed by the EU, the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a warning last week, stating that the U.S. government is prepared to take retaliatory measures.